
(lass 
Book 



PRESENTED BY 



THE RISE OF ECCLESIASTICAL 
CONTROL IN QUEBEC 



WALTER ALEXANDER RIDDELL, A.M., B. D. 

Director of Social Surveys for the Methodist and Presbyterian 
Churches in Canada 



SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS 

FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 

IN THE 

Faculty of Political Science 
Columbia University 



NEW YORK 
I9l6 



THE RISE OF ECCLESIASTICAL 
CONTROL IN QUEBEC 



BY 

WALTER ALEXANDER RIDDELL, A.M., B.D. 

Director of Social Survey* for the Methodist and Presbyterian 
Churches in Canada 



SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS 

FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 

IN THE 

Faculty of Political Science 
Columbia University 



NEW YORK 
I9I6 



fidS3 



Copyright, 1916 

BY 

WALTER ALEXANDER RIDDELL 



aV 






PREFACE 

This dissertation is the outgrowth of a deep interest in 
those national problems in Canada which have arisen out 
of the historical relations between the ecclesiastical and 
governmental authorities in Quebec. The study was be- 
gun as a brief essay on Canadian ecclesiology, under Dr. 
Bayles, formerly of Columbia University. It was gradually 
broadened under the inspiration and suggestion of Professor 
Franklin H. Giddings, into the present monograph on the 
sociological and historical factors which led up to and made 
possible the control of the Roman Catholic church in Quebec. 

The aim of the dissertation throughout has been to present 
sufficient source material to afford the general reader a basis 
upon which to form an adequate judgment of the sociologi- 
cal and historical origins in Quebec, which have been re- 
sponsible in a large part for the present racial and religious 
situation in Canada as a whole. With this in view, the au- 
thor has quoted liberally from manuscript and other source 
material, most of which is the result of researches in the 
archives of London, Paris and Ottawa. As far as possible 
the text has been reproduced without emendations and a 
literal rendering of the original French and Latin has been 
given. 

I wish to express my thanks to those who have helped me. 
Especially am I grateful to Professor Franklin H. Giddings, 
and Professor Alvan A. Tenney, for continued interest and 
guidance ; and to Professor Herbert L. Osgood, for criticism 
as to material and arrangement. I am also deeply indebted 
to Professor John Home Cameron, of the University of 
5l 5 



6^ 



6 PREFACE [6 

Toronto, for invaluable help with many of the French 
translations and in revision and preparation of the manu- 
script for publication, and to David Duff, M. A., of the 
same institution, for assistance with the Latin translations. 
Among many courtesies received from librarians and 
archivists, my thanks are especially due to H. P. Biggar, 
B. Litt, English and French representative of the Canadian 
Archives, and to Dr. Arthur G. Doughty, and staff, for as- 
sistance in gaining personal access of the author to valuable 
manuscript sources in London, Paris and Ottawa; and to 
Miss Georgiana C. Nelles, for assistance in the preparation 
of the bibliography and in proof-reading. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Preface 5 

PART I 
Demographic and Social Conditions 

CHAPTER I 
Introduction 13 

CHAPTER II 

Demographic Factors Affecting the Homogeneity of the 
Population of Quebec 

(a) The situation— conducive to homogeneity . 16 

1. Natural features, waterways, accessibility 16 

2. Artificial features, river roads, farm homes, seigniorial tenure, 

parish church, social intercourse 17 

3. Sources of subsistence, fur trade, agriculture, standard of 

living, increased prosperity under British rule, homo- 
geneity. . 23 

(b) Aggregation — relatively simple 29 

1. Attempt to assimilate Indians; Algonquins, Hurons, Iro- 

quois. Christian Missions. Heterogeneity of population 
produced by the presence of the Indians not of great im- 
portance in relation to ecclesiastical control 29 

2. The white population ; French only -34 

3. The growth of population, cessation of immigration . 35 

4. Genetic aggregation, rapid became of abundant natural re- 

sources, produced a single type 36 

(c) Demotic composition — relatively uniform 36 

1. French and Canadian-born French, immigration from all 

parts of France .... 36 

2. Fusion of racial types, Mediterranean, Alpine, Danubian 

and Baltic 39 

(d) Demotic unity — expedited by amalgamation ... -39 
1. Amalgamation among white stocks, distribution of immi- 
grants, assisted immigration of female:-, absence of any 
impediment to marriage from religious differences, early 
marriages, fecundity encouraged, decline of the A'oblesse 
and the leveling of classes. 40 

7) 7 



CONTENTS 



[8 



CHAPTER III 
Social and Moral Solidarity 

(a) Occupations— not greatly diversified - . 54 

i. Fur trade, agriculture 54 

2. The rural mind as influenced by occupation 56 

(b) Language — uniform- English subordinated 56 

1. Differences of language among French immigrants . ... 56 

2. The French language prevails 56 

3. British desire to introduce the English language— organized 

opposition • • . 57 

4. Bi-lingualism in official matters 57 

5. Failure of plan for teaching English in parish schools . . 58 

6. The French language an important factor in the develop- 

ment of mental unity and an effective weapon in the hands 

of the Roman Catholic church. ... 58 

(c) The church — early control of local social life 50 

1. Initiative discouraged under French regime. Coureurs de 

dots ; withdrawal of the restless spirits from the rigorous 
discipline of the church 50 

2. The pressure of pioneer life prevented the establishment of 

organizations capable of competing with the church ... 61 

3. The school the handmaid of the church 62 

4. The church the social center 63 

(d) Characteristics of the French-Canadians — readily subject to 

ecclesiastical control 63 

1. Forceful and convivial, fond of display and attentions, religi- 
ous, hospitable, honest, conservative and traditional ... 64 

(e) Religious solidarity— fostered by the policies of the church . . 69 

1. Exclusion of the Protestants 70 

2. Uniformity in worship, undivided religious leadership ... 76 

3. Adequate religious leadership, strong churchmen appointed, 

the missionaries, the first bishop. . . yy 

4. Strong religious organization, unified by the erection of 

Archbishopric of Quebec, liberal financial support .... 79 

5. The Roman Catholic church in control of education .... 82 

(a) The French period, the school of mathematics and 
hydrography, other schools religious in character. . . 

(b) The British period, Roman Catholic church retains 
control of education, the teaching orders, Jesuit 
estates, the report of the committee on education re- 
jected by the Roman Catholic hierarchy, the govern- 
ment accedes to the Roman Catholic policy of state- 
supported and church-controlled schools 85 



9] CONTENTS g 

PACE 

PART II 
Church and State 

CHAPTER IV 
The Chukch and State in the French Period 

(a) The evolution of ecclesiastical control eg 

1. Conditions favorable to ecclesiastical control ieo 

(a) The religious motive in exploration and colonization 
prepared a ripe field for the domination of the church, ioo 

(b) The Ricollets, the first missionaries 10^ 

(c) The coming of the Jesuits, the beginning of ecclesi- 
astical control 102 

(d) Government officials chosen largely for their religious 
zeal and their acceptability to the hierarchy 103 

2. The development of ecclesiastical control 104 

(a) The success of missionaries as the agents of the state 
among the Indians increased the authority of the 
church I04 

(b) The efficient leadership of Laval resulted in the triumph 

of the Papal over the Gallican party 106 

(c) The erection of the Archbishopric of Quebec strength- 
ened the control of Rome IO q 

3. Decline and temporary revival of ecclesiastical control. . . 112 

(a) The temporal authority of the church successfully 
challenged under the administration of Colbert. . . . 112 

(b) Revival of the temporal authority of the church under 
Denonville .... . . 113 

(c) Gradual decline of the temporal authority of the church 
after the return of Frontenac, to the close of the French, 
period „ 4 

(b) Limitations of the State upon ecclesiastical control . . . . 114 

1. Resistance to the domination of the Roman Catholic hier- 

archy in the Sovereign Council 115 

2. In the matter ot tithes . . 116 

3. In regard to religious houses 120 

4. In regard to the public ministry of the church, respecting 

agitation vs. brandy trade, respecting education for the 
church, respecting public announcements by the clergy . . 122 

5. In questions cf church polity, respecting the rights of pa- 

rishioners, cure vs. bishop, civil power vs. clerical en- 



croachments 



124 



IO CONTENTS [jo 

PAGE 

CHAPTER V 

Church and State Under British Rule 

(a) Early relations of the British Government and the French 

Canadians. ... 131 

1. Attitude of the British rulers, new subjects. ... ... 133 

2. Religious settlement at the conquest 135 

3. Introduction of English law caused dissatisfaction, the people 

turned to the clergy, expulsion of foreign ecclesiastics • . 139 

(b) The British government conciliatory to the Roman Catholics; 

the Quebec Act increased the power of the Roman Cath- 
olic church . ... . . 154 

1. Recognition of Roman Catholic religion .... 155 

2. Recognition of the right of the Roman Catholic clergy to 

tithes. . . 157 

(c) Loyalty of the Roman Catholic hierarchy to the British 

strengthened ecclesiastical control . . 158 

1. Roman Catholic hierarchy saw that religion might profit by 

" a change of masters ". . . 158 

2. Hatred and fear of the religion of the " Bostonians " 159 

(d) The attempt to establish the Church of England as the National 

Church. ... . . . . 162 

1. Early difficulties, small Protestant population, some of the 

early clergy unsuited to their tasks, lack of church build- 
ings and adequate revenues . . 164 

2. Attempts to improve the status of the Church of England 

necessarily advanced the interests of the Roman Catholic 
church .... 175 

(e) Separation of Upper and Lower Canada 178 

1. Separation of English and French population .... 178 

2. Roman Catholics remained dominant in ecclesiastical affairs 

in Quebec. ... .178 

(f) The Constitutional Act of 179L ... ... 179 

1. The act the culmination of the development of the system of 

ecclesiastical control. ... . 179 

2. The extension of self-governmeni opened to the church 

another avenue to power through influence at the polls. . 179 

3. Few changes of fundamental importance since its passage . 179 

CHAPTER VI 

Summary and Conclusion . 180 

Appendix: Bibliography 1S9 



PART I 
DEMOGRAPHIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 



CHAPTER I 
Introduction 

The history of religious organization in Canada has as 
jet received little attention. Numerous contributions to the 
field, it is true, have appeared from time to time in the form 
of biographies of churchmen or denominational histories 
but a comprehensive history of the church in Canada has still 
to be written. Few, if any, countries offer a richer field 
for a study of certain important developments in the history 
of the Christian Church. Much valuable material awaits 
the historian and sociologist for a study of such topics as : 
the Jesuit and other missions among the Indians ; the various 
struggles between the different religious orders ; and be- 
tween the Gallican and Papal parties within the Roman 
Catholic church; as well as the struggle of the church for 
temporal supremacy; the toleration of Roman Catholicism 
and the provision for separate schools under British rule ; the 
establishment of the Church of England and state support 
of religious institutions ; denominational unions ; home and 
foreign missions; social service; the church and the com- 
munity life; and the movement for organic church union. 

Among all the problems of the church in Canada, how- 
ever, there are none more interesting than that of the 
relation of church to state, because nearly all the others 
are more or less intimately related to this, probably the most 
fascinating of them all. There are, of course, many phases 
of this general problem. Naturally at different periods and 
in different provinces different traditions arose and the 
13] 13 



r4 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [^ 

relation of church and state varied greatly. The history of 
church and state in Quebec is undoubtedly the most interest- 
ing of all. This interest arises, not only from the fact that 
in this province the British government has had to deal with 
a population essentially French in descent and language and 
Roman Catholic in religion, but also from the fact that, in 
the face of the decline of ecclesiastical authority among 
the Latin peoples of Europe, the legal status granted by the 
British government has resulted in giving to the hierarchy 
such power and control over the social, political and religious 
life of the people, as to make the Roman Catholic Church 
of Quebec without a peer among the Roman Catholic 
churches of the world. 

Many important events occurred during the long period 
of struggle and adjustment between the church authorities 
and the representatives of the British government. The 
chief interest in the problem, however, lies not in these 
features considered as striking events but in their relation 
to the great social forces which conditioned the adjustment 
that was finally made. It is the purpose of this essay to deal 
with these social forces and to show their relation to the 
growth of the control of the church itself in Quebec. 

The period covered is from the settlement of the country 
down to " The Constitutional Act " of 1791. This in 
many respects is the most important period, because by the 
the time the Constitutional Act was passed the basis in 
law had been laid for all subsequent ecclesiastical history 
of the Roman Catholic church in Quebec ; and in conse- 
quence the interplay of the social forces which introduced 
the period of which that act was the climax formed a:i 
essential part of the conditions which determined the en- 
tire subsequent development of religious organization in 
Quebec. This study, therefore, has been entitled " The Rise 
of Ecclesiastical Control in Quebec." Its aim is to indi- 



I 5 ] INTRODUCTION I5 

cate, from a sociological point of view, how closely related 
was the rise of that control and the social solidarity upon 
which it was based to the great demographic and social 
facts of this province. The study reviews the facts which 
show how inevitably the population became homogeneous, 
and how, for this reason there developed a social solidarity 
which was highly favorable for the development of a 
centralized and paternalistic ecclesiastical control. The 
character of the subjects treated is indicated by the chapter 
headings. In Chapter II entitled, " Demographic Factors 
Affecting the Homogeneity of the Population of the Prov- 
ince of Quebec," the attempt has been made to show how 
the situation of Quebec and the facts of the aggregation 
and composition of the population were all remarkably 
conducive to the production of that social and moral solidar- 
ity which the Roman Catholic church in Quebec has found 
so well adapted to its purposes. In Chapter III entitled, 
" Social and Moral Solidarity," the facts of occupation, 
language and other social characteristics of the population 
are so treated as to indicate their influence upon the same 
fundamental social process, namely, the production of men- 
tal and moral solidarity. 

In the later chapters, the relations of the state and church 
are considered from a more historical standpoint but in 
such a way that the emphasis is still strongly upon the 
underlying sociological causes. 



CHAPTER II 

Demographic Factors Affecting the Homogeneity of 
the Population of the Province of Quebec 

Any study of the rise of ecclesiastical control in the 
region now included in the Province of Quebec would be 
incomplete that did not recognize the strong influence of 
demographic and social conditions. It is these conditions 
which were largely responsible for the production of that 
homogeneous population which offered such a rich soil for 
the growth of ecclesiastical control. 

It is the purpose of this and the following chapter to 
deal, as adequately as possible, with these underlying forces 
both demographic and social. The present chapter will deal 
with the first of these topics, namely, the demographic fac- 
tors which affected the homogeneity of the population of 
Quebec, while the following chapter will deal with the social 
aspects of that homogeneity. The demographic facts can 
be treated logically, under the headings, situation, aggre- 
gation, demotic composition and demotic unity. 

The situation, including the natural features, artificial 
features and the possible sources of subsistence of the area 
under consideration, was remarkably conducive to that 
homogeneity of population to which reference has already 
been made. 

Among the natural features of situation the chief factor 
which made for homogeneity was the magnificent system 
of waterways. In Quebec alone the 187 principal rivers 
had a combined length of 13,883 miles. 1 A large part of 



16 



1 Quebec Statistical Year Book 1914, pp. 46-53. 

[16 



lj] DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS T y 

this distance was navigable by canoe and a very consider- 
able proportion of it by larger boats. Thus the rivers 
provided an easy means of access to the new settlements 
and of escape in the event of an Indian attack. The ac- 
cessibility of the territory, however, reacted most peculiarly 
upon its settlement and character. The rivers produced 
both a scattering and a concentration of population. The 
population became scattered because very many small settle- 
ments were formed. It was concentrated in that for the 
most part it did not extend back far from the banks of 
the rivers. 

The habitat of the French Canadian, during the period 
from 1625-179 1, was roughly coterminous with the territory 
later known as Lower Canada. 1 The actual settlements, 
however, covered only those districts in the immediate vicin- 
ity of the St. Lawrence river and its tributaries." Settle- 

1 The territory comprising the province of Lower Canada by Imperial 
Act of 1791 was intended to include practically all the settlements of 
the French Canadians, and therefore may be taken as the population- 
area under consideration. The boundaries of the province were formed 
by the territory of the Hudson's Bay or East Maine on the north ; the 
Gulf of St. Lawrence, the St. John River and the narrow strip of the 
Labrador coast on the east; the province of New Brunswick, the dis- 
trict of Maine, the province of New Hampshire, and the states of 
Vermont and New York on the south : and, on the west, the province 
of Upper Canada, the Ottawa River, Lake Temiscaming, and a line 
drawn due north from the head of this lake to Hudson's Bay. (Bou- 
chette, A Topographical Description of the Province of Lower Canada, 
1815, pp. 1-3.) 

1 " The shores are closely inhabited for about three-quarters of an 
hnglish mile up the country; but beyond that the woods and the wil- 
derness increase. All the rivulets falling into the river St. Lawrence 
are likewise well inhabited on both sides. I observed throughout Can- 
ada that the cultivated lands lie only along the river St. Lawrence and 
the other rivers in the country, the environs of towns excepted, round 
which the country is all cultivated and inhabited within the distance of 
twelve or eighteen English miles. The great islands in the river are 
likewise inhabited." (Kalm, Travels into North America, vol. iii, pp. 
oo-qi.) 



jS ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [18 

ment, almost from the first, had been widely dispersed. As 
early as 1667 there were enumerated in the census returns, 
as reaching from the city of Quebec on the east to Montreal 
on the west, no fewer than nineteen small communities, 
the largest of which had a population of only 667. By 1739 
the number of settlements had increased to 137, and ex- 
tended from St. Barnabe ou Rimouski on the east, to 
Soulanges on the west, a distance of more than 350 miles. 

The seigniorial system of land tenure, also, was largely 
responsible for both this scattering and concentration. The 
desire of seigniors to obtain large tracts of land with a river 
frontage, induced them to push the frontier further and 
further away from the leading settlements. Three seignior- 
ies had been granted before 1627, namely, those of Louis 
Hebert in 1623, of Guillaume de Caen in 1624, and of the 
" Reverend Fathers of the Society and Company of Jesus " 
in 1626. 1 The Company of One Hundred Associates were 
given the right in 1627, " to improve and to settle the said 
lands, as they may consider to be necessary, and to distri- 
bute the same to those who will live in the said country, and 
to others, in such quantities and in such a manner as they 
shall judge proper." 2 During the Company's rule prob- 
ably not more than a score of the sixty seigniories granted 
were given to actual settlers 3 (such as Robert Giffard), 
who were prepared to develop their holdings. 4 

In 1685 the number of seigniories had increased to sixty- 
four, 5 and in 1712 to at least ninety. 6 For a time after the 

1 Munro, William Bennett, The Seigniorial System in Canada, p. 21. 

2 Edits et Ordonnances Royanx (1803), vol. i, p. 4. 

3 Munro, op. cit., p. 25. 

4 The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, 1636, vol. ix, p. 155. 
* Census of Canada, 1870-1871, vol. iv, re Census 1685. 

' Catalogue's Report, in Munro, Documents Relating to the Seigniorial 
Tenure in Canada, The Publications of the Champlain Society, pp. 94- 
I5i. 



1Q J DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS ig 

arrets of Marly, fewer grants were made, and in 17 19 they 
were refused altogether; 1 but from 1731 to the end of the 
French period, grants again became quite numerous. 

In many cases little care was taken to secure suitable 
seigniors. So unsuccessful and indifferent had been many 
of the early seigniors, that in 1663 a decree was passed 
revoking all concessions remaining uncleared after a period 
of six months, on the ground, that 

large tracts of land have been granted to all the in- 
habitants of the colony, who have never been in a position to 
clear them, and who have placed their homes in the middle of 
the said lands. The result has been that they are scattered 
about at considerable distances from one another, and are 
neither able to render help or assistance, nor to be assisted by 
the officers and soldiers of the garrisons at Quebec, and other 
strongholds of the said country ; and moreover, it appears that 
in a large part of the country, only small fields lying around the 
dwellings of grantees have been cleared, the rest is beyond 
their power to clear. 2 

The lands reverting to the crown were then to be opened 
for settlement, by habitants and by new settlers in the 
colony. 3 

So unsatisfactory had been the company's policy in grant- 

1 Canadian Archives, series B. 40, (transcript from Archives Des 
Colonies), pp. 245-248; cf. Munro, op. cit., pp. 160-162. 

2 Edits et Ord. (1803), vol. i, p. 24. Cf. "It is necessary, then, to 
attend to the interior of the Colony, which is in such a terrible state 
of disorder that no good is to be expected from it, unless it be re- 
constructed. This cannot be effected without causing most of the settle- 
ments to be abandoned, each seigniory being two or three leagues 
front, and the most populous of them having only thirty or forty 
settlers; the majority of them twelve to fifteen, and even five or six." 
(Denonville to Seignelay, 12 June, 1686, Colonial Documents, New 
York, vol. ix, p. 204; cf. ibid., p. 307.) 

* Edits et Ord. (1803), vol. i, p. 25. 



20 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [ 2 Q 

ing seigniories, that the right was withdrawn in 1665, and 
placed in the hands of the officers of the crown. 1 The new 
policy provided that the inteiidant should furnish seigniorial 
holdings to all who were willing to settle on their lands, 
and who were in a position to meet the expense of develop- 
ing them. 2 

Still the condition of settlement in the colony seems to 
have been looked upon by the king as unsatisfactory. For 
in the two arrets of July 6, 171 1, he sought to overcome 
the evil of sparsely settled seigniories by making the hold- 
ing of land dependent upon its cultivation. The seigniors, 
on the one hand, were brought more under the control of 
the crown, and compelled after a year to throw open un- 
cleared lands for settlement, 3 on the sole condition of a 
ground rental (settlement de conceder les terres a titre de 
redcvance) . 4 Also the seigniorial dues from the new colon- 
ists were made payable directly into the hands of the receiver 
of the royal domain at Quebec. 5 The habitants, on the 
other hand, who did not live on their lands and cultivate 
them, forfeited them to the seigniorial domain. 6 This 
eventually facilitated settlement, as the seignior could not 
withhold his land for better terms from the habitants, nor 
could the habitant retain land for speculative purposes. 7 

Although the population in the colony was sparse, and 
the settlement for a long time widely scattered, many of 
the local communities were quite thickly settled. The long 

1 Munro, Seigniorial System, p. 34. 

2 Edits et Ord. (1806), vol. ii, pp. 128C-128I1. 

* Jen de Hef was peculiar to the Canadian seigniorial system, for it 
imposed upon the seigniors the obligation of sub-granting the lands 
within their seigniories. 

* Customary dues in the neighborhood. Munro, op. cit., p. 89. 

5 Edits et Ord. (1803), vol. i, pp. 321-322. 

6 Ibid., p. 323. T Munro, Seigniorial System, p, 43. 



2I ] DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS 21 

and narrow shape of the original holdings, and the law of 
inheritance were responsible in a large measure for this 
condition. Unlike the village type of agriculturist in 
France, the habitant preferred to live on his own land- 1 
The system of land survey in New France, while allowing 
for this preference, at the same time permitted most of the 
advantages of social intercourse to be found in the village 
of the mother country. This system, which was first 
adopted in 1632, divided the land along the river into narrow 
farms of about four arpcnts in width by forty arpcnts in 
depth. The advantage of such an arrangement, as Suite 
points out, " is to bring the house a few steps from the 
river; to permit easy access to the public road situated 
between the house and the river; to keep social intercourse 
as close as possible by the vicinity of neighbors engaged 
in the same occupation." 2 Later, this plan of building 
the houses along the common road, as the Earl of Durham 
remarked, " established a series of continuous villages which 
give the country of the seigniories the appearance of a never 
ending street," 3 lent itself to inter-communication, and in 
a large measure overcame rural isolation. 4 

1 " All the farms in Canada stand separate from each other, so that 
each farmer has his possessions entirely distinct from those of his 
neighbour. Each church, it is true, has a little village near it; but that 
consists chiefly of the parsonage, a school for the boys and girls of 
the place, and of the houses of tradesmen, but rarely of farm-houses; 
and if that was the case, yet their fields were separated. The farm- 
houses hereabouts are generally built all along the rising banks of the 
river either close to the water or at some distance from it, and about 
three or four arpcnts [a linear measure of about 12 rods in length, 
Webster's International Dictionary, 1909] from each other." (Kalm, 
vol. iii, p. 79.) 

7 Suite, Royal Society of Canada, Proceedings and Transactions, 1905, 
sec. ii. p. in ; cf. Bouchette, British Dominions in North America, vol. 
i, P- 363. 

' The Report of the Earl of Durham, p. 16. 

4 " The farmers or censitaircs usually build their houses at 100 or 200 



22 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [22 

According to the Custom of Paris, the law of inheritance 
did not allow more than one-fifth of a seignior's or habi- 
tant's holding to be disposed of (except by actual deed of 
sale), to the prejudice of direct or collateral heirs. When 
lands were held en seigneurie, the oldest son had special 
rights of inheritance, but in the case of lands en censwe all 
heirs shared equally. 

The desire for each heir to share in the river frontage, 
soon resulted in the holdings in many settlements becoming 
of the narrowest dimensions, sometimes having a frontage 
of less than 200 feet. 1 

As has been stated above, since the houses and barns were 
usually situated close to the road or river, it is readily seen 
that what the government considered very detrimental to 
the economic prosperity of the colony, 2 afforded unusual 
opportunity for inter-communication within the local settle- 
ments. 

The road and the river also brought the parish church 
within reach of most of the settlers. These centres of social 

yards distant from the road, or sometimes nearer . . . and [the homes] 
in most parts have the appearance of a continued village. The origin 
of this injudicious distribution of land is no doubt to be traced to 
the social character of the Canadian peasant, who is singularly fond of 
neighborhood, though it is also referable to the expediency which for- 
merly existed of concentrating as much as possible the moral and 
physical energies of the colony, not only with a view of mutual aid in 
the formation of settlements, but in order the better to be able to repel 
the attacks of the aborigines." (Bouchette, op. cit., vol. i, p. 363.) 

1 Munro, Seigniorial System, p. 83. 

J In 1744 the governor and intendant complained to the French min- 
ister that the two previous bad harvests were partly due to the attempt 
of a large part of the habitants to eke out a living on the subdivided 
lands of their fathers. The following year the king passed an ordi- 
nance forbidding anyone to erect a house on any farm " which shall 
be less than an arpent and a half in frontage and thirty or forty 
arpents in depth." Bdits et Ord. (1803), vol. i, pp. 551-552; cf. also 
C. A., M. 384. P. 74- v 



2$] DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS 23 

as well as religious life increased rapidly. In 1685 there 
were forty rural parishes, each with a resident cure, and 
each having on the average a population of 220. 

Thus, because the territory was settled almost entirely by 
a single population type, namely that of the Roman Catholic 
French, each small community soon became comprised of 
persons relatively alike in descent, language and religion. 
There was great homogeneity of population in each local 
group. Inasmuch, however, as the river and seigniorial 
systems had led to the founding of many such local groups, 
at about the same period, and by the same population type, 
there was a remarkable similarity among the local groups. 
In this way it came about that although there was little 
inter-communication, in the early days of the colony, 1 the 
foundation was laid for homogeneity, and subsequent so- 
cial solidarity on the scale of an entire province. When 
later a developed system of communication by roads was 
added to the increasing use of the rivers, the inter-relation- 
ships established, readily produced mental and moral solidar- 
ity throughout the whole region. 

The privations and hardships incident to pioneer life in 
the New World also operated to create a single homogeneous 
type of population in New France. Natural resources were 
abundant but not such as to create great differences in 
wealth between the successful and unsuccessful. Moreover, 
toil of a severe sort was required to exploit the resources 
that existed. In consequence only the vigorous could remain 

1 This lack of communication between different parts of the colony- 
was brought to the attention of the King in 1712 by Catalogue, the 
crown engineer, who proposed to overcome the difficulty by having the 
chief road-commissioner instructed to put forth greater effort in the 
construction of roads and bridges. (Catalogne's report, in Munro, 
Docs. S. T., p. 147.) Governor Murray, just fifty years later, was also 
of the opinion that roads were necessary to bring the various settle- 
ments together. Constitutional Documents, vol. i, p. 41. 



24 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [24 

permanently. Because of a high birth rate, however, this 
type increased rapidly. The abundance in natural resources 
consisted largely of fish and game, especially in the newer 
settlements where they afforded a considerable part of the 
food supply of the pioneer and fur-trader. Considerable 
food supplies, however, had to be imported from France in 
the early years of the colony. The Company of One Hun- 
dred Associates had undertaken to provide for its settlers 
shelter and subsistence, during the first three years follow- 
ing their arrival in the colony, or to give them sufficient 
cleared land to enable them to become self-supporting, to- 
gether with the necessary grain for the first seeding, and 
subsistence until the following harvest. 1 In addition to this 
grant of cleared land, the settlers were to receive further 
grants of uncleared land in such quantities, and carrying 
with it such titles, honors, rights and powers, as the com- 
pany should deem expedient. 2 The associates who founded 
Montreal also agreed to make provision, not only for the 
settlement of forty persons on the Isle of Montreal, and 
to increase the number annually, but also to provide them 
with shelter, stock, and seed. 3 

The rigorous climate, although it shut off much of the 
little communication there was between the neighboring 
settlements, and gave the members of the local communities 
more leisure for social intercourse, nevertheless, was of 
much less disadvantage to agriculture than was generally 
supposed. In a letter of the year 1627, Lalemant, writes 
in this regard that, 

1 Edits et Ord. (1803), vol. i, p. 3; cf. also Charlevoix, P. F. X., His- 
tory and General Description of New France, trans, by Shea, vol. ii, 
P- 37. 

* Ibid., vol. ii, p. 40. 

3 Archives du seminaire de Saint-Sulpice de Paris, cited by Faillon, 
Histoire de la colonie francaise en Canada, vol. i, pp. 401-403. 



25 ] DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS 2 $ 

the long duration of the snow might cause one to somewhat 
doubt whether wheat or rye would grow well in this country. 
But I have seen some as beautiful as that produced in your 
France, and even that which we have planted here yields to it 
in nothing . . . rye and oats grow here the best in the world, 
the grain being larger and more abundant than in France. 
Our peas are so beautiful; it is wonderful to see them. The 
further up the river we go, the more we see of the fertility 
of the soil. 1 

In the Jesuit Relation of 1642 is contained a similar 
favorable report on the agricultural possibilities : 

The cereals have proved very successful ; some residents now 
harvest more than they require for the food of their families 
and of their cattle, which thrive very well in this country. 
The time will come when all will have food. 2 

The observations of Kalm, the botanist, are especially 
valuable. In describing the district known as La Prairie 
to the south of the St. Lawrence, on his visit in 1749, he 
writes 

The prospect is very fine . . . and as far as I could see the 
country, it was cultivated ; all the fields were covered with 
corn, and they generally use summer-wheat here. The ground 
is still very fertile, so that there is no occasion for leaving it 
lie fallow . . . and in a word this country was, in my opinion 
the finest in North America which I had hitherto seen. 3 

In another place he writes : 

The high meadows in Canada are excellent, and by far pre- 
ferable to the meadows round Philadelphia and in the other 

1 Rel. 1616-1629, vol. iv, pp. 193-194. 
7 Re!. 1642, vol. xxii, pp. 39-41. 
3 Kalm. op. cit., vol. iii, pp. 51-52. 



2 6 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [26 

English colonies. The further I advanced northward here, 
the finer were the meadows and the turf on them was better 
and closer. 1 

With regard to the yield of grain crops, Kalm states that, 

wheat is the kind of corn which is sown in the greatest quanti- 
ties here. The soil is pretty fertile, and they have sometimes 
got twenty-four or twenty-six bushels from one, though the 
harvest is generally ten or twelve fold. They sow likewise a 
great quantity of peas, which yield a greater increase than 
any corn ; and there are examples of its producing a hundred 
fold. 2 

His description shows that in the district between Mon- 
treal and Three Rivers, the rich alluvial soil of the St. 
Lawrence valley was becoming somewhat run-out under the 
crude methods of agriculture. He says, " the soil is reck- 
oned pretty fertile ; and wheat yields nine or ten grains from 
one. But when this old man was a boy [referring to a 
farmer he had interviewed], and the country was new and 
rich everywhere, they could get twenty or four-and-twenty, 
grains from one." 3 

Notwithstanding the crude methods of agriculture, the 
struggle for subsistence, once the land was cleared, does not 
appear to have been difficult. The Earl of Durham speaks 
of the French Canadians as " occupying portions of the 
wholly unappropriated soil, sufficient to provide each family 
with material comforts, far beyond their ancient means, or 
almost their conceptions." 4 As early as 1636, Le Jeune, 
in answer to the question, " The land being cleared and 
ploughed, will it produce enough for the inhabitants?" wrote 
that it would, and cited the case of one Giffard, who from 

1 Kalm, op. cit., vol. iii, p. 156. 2 Ibid., p. 206. 

3 Ibid., p. 259. 4 Durham, p. 16. 



27] DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS 27 

his first clearing had harvested, " eight puncheons of wheat, 
two puncheons of peas, and three puncheons of Indian 
corn " ; and from the second crop he hoped to harvest 
enough, if his wheat yielded in proportion to indications, 
" to maintain twenty persons." This land had all been 
cleared, seeded and harvested with the help of seven men, 1 
showing that even under pioneer conditions a living might 
be had from the soil. 

As the land was heavily timbered, however, the clearing 
of it was a slow, difficult, and expensive process. An 
arpcnt and a half [about an acre and a quarter] was con- 
sidered a fair year's work for one man; 2 and, as is the 
case in all such pioneer communities, only the more in- 
dustrious and persevering could hope to succeed. 

Most writers agree that the habitants had little difficulty 
in getting a living from the soil and this can doubtless be 
accounted for, in large measure, by their standard of living. 
Although considerably above that of the European peas- 
antry, this standard consisted merely in a plentiful supply 
of plain food and other necessaries. Le Jeune describes a 
labourer's rations while clearing land as consisting of, 

two loaves of bread, of about six or seven pounds, a week, — 
that is a puncheon of flour a year; two pounds of lard, two 
ounces of butter, a little measure of oil and of vinegar: a little 
dried codfish, that is, about a pound; a bowlful of peas, which 
is about a chopin (pint), — and all this for one week. As to 
their drinks, they are given a chopin of cider per day. or a 
quart of beer, and occasionally a drink of wine, as on fete-days. 

1 Rel. 1636, vol. ix, p. 153. 

8 " Twenty men will clear in one year thirty arpents of land so clean 
that the plow can pass through it. . . . The usual task for one man is 
an arpent [a measure equal to .871 acres, Quebec Statistical Year Book, 
1914, p. 199] and a half a year if he is not engaged in other work." 
(Rel. 1636, vol. ix. pp. I55-I57-) 



28 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [ 2 8 

In the winter they are given a drop of brandy in the morning, 
if one has any. What they get from the country in hunting 
or fishing, is not included in this. 1 

These rations for a labourer, considering the amount of game 
and fish that must have been available, indicate for the 
whole population, in the matter of food, a fair standard of 
living. 2 

Whether there was any marked rise in the standard of 
living during the latter part of the French period seems 
doubtful. Occasionally, owing to a poor harvest, 3 or as the 
result of war, 4 we find that numbers of the population were 
reduced to actual want. The high price of the commodities 
which were not produced in the country, for a time at least, 
seems to have stood in the way of raising the habitant's 
standard of living. Kalm points out that 

The common people in the country, seem to be very poor. 
They have the necessaries of life, and but little else. They 
are content with meals of dry bread and water, bringing all 
other provisions, such as butter, cheese, flesh, poultry, eggs, 
&c. to town, in order to get money for them, for which they 
buy clothes and brandy for themselves, and dresses for their 
women. 5 

This would seem to indicate that commodities which were 
produced by the inhabitants of Quebec were fairly plentiful 
and cheap but that few could afford to pay the high prices 
necessary to obtain other things. The standard of living 
must have been relatively uniform. 

1 Rel. 1636, vol. ix, p. 157; cf. Colon Docs., N. Y., vol. ix, pp. 151, 398. 

i Munro, Docs. S. T., p. xciii. 

-Edits et Ord. (1803), vol. i, pp. 551-552- 

4 " Thus the harvest was gathered with great tranquility, the crop was 
abundant, and the famine, which had begun to be felt keenly, ceased at 
once." (Charlevoix, vol. iv, p. 241; cf. also Const. Docs., vol. i, p. 60.) 

5 Kalm, op. cit., vol. iii, p. 192. 



2 9 ] DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS 29 

With the return of peace under the British rule, a large 
measure of prosperity was felt among the habitants. 1 The 
prospect of a comfortable house on the land became more 
attractive to the young men than the lure of the fur trade, 
so that it was said, 

nearly all Canadians — many of whom are young — build new 
habitations for themselves and are presented by their parents 
with cattle and articles for housekeeping. " Be fruitful and 
multiply " seems to be their motto, for the family of the new 
habitant soon begins to increase. He has however to work 
hard and live economically for a number of years before he 
is able to fill his barns with grain and enlarge his stock. 2 

Whatever weight we give to the more glowing accounts 
of New France, this stands out, that although resources 
were abundant, nevertheless the conditions of life were 
hard, and only the industrious and persevering could hope 
to exploit the environment successfully. Complaint was 
sometimes made that many of the early colonists were shift- 
less and indifferent, but this process of selection of necessity 
gradually developed a remarkably homogeneous type of 
population, thrifty and self-satisfied, traditionalistic and 
conservative in the extreme. 

In considering the population of New France in the 
early days, the presence of the Indians must not be left 
out of account. At first thought one might assume that 
their presence would have tended to destroy the essential 
homogeneity of the population. This was not the fact, 

1 " The spirit which took possession of the towns soon spread into 
the most distant parts of the country, and introduced among their 
countrymen ideas of greater luxury and enjoyment than they had orig- 
inally entertained." (A Political and Historical Account of Lower 
Canada, London, 1830, p. 117.) 

1 Revolutionary Letters, pp. 27-28. 



30 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [30 

however, because in reality the Indians never became an 
integral part of the local community, nevertheless the status 
of the Indians must be reviewed briefly, because of the in- 
direct effect which their presence had upon the rise of 
ecclesiastical control. This indirect effect was seen in the 
policies of the church and government authorities with re- 
spect to the Indians which of necessity strengthened the 
control of the church. 

At the coming of the French to the St. Lawrence valley 
it was the rich habitat of native races. These comprised 
the Algonquin and Huron-Iroquois stocks, which were 
divided into numerous tribes. The Huron-Iroquois were 
much more virile and interesting than the representatives of 
the great Algonquin stock, 1 and it was with these that the 
French had most to do. The facility with which the French 
were able to mingle with the Indians, 2 together with the 
influence of the Catholic Missions, 3 soon brought the French 
into more or less intimate relations with these tribes. 

The success of these efforts at first led the authorities to 
believe that the Indians would soon adopt a Christian civili- 
zation, and as they became assimilated with the French they 
would be a source of strength to the population in the colony. 
The missionaries were to be the chief recruiting agents in 
this plan of collecting the Christian Indians in villages. 4 

1 Rel., vol. i, pp. 10-11. 

2 Parkman, The Jesuits in North America, vol. i, p. 131. 

3 These included the Montagnais, the Quebec, the Montreal, the Huron, 
the Iroquois and the Ottawa missions. (Rel., vol. i, pp. 15-35.) 

4 " The foundations of French dominion were to be laid deep in the 
heart and conscience of the savage. His stubborn neck was to be sub- 
dued to the ' yoke of the Faith.' The power of the priest established, 
that of the temporal ruler was secure. These sanguinary hordes, 
weaned from intestine strife, were to unite in a common allegiance to 
God and the King. Mingled with French traders and French settlers, 
softened by French manners, guided by French priests, ruled by French 



31] DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS $1 

The Marquis de Seignelay, in the census of 1685 noted 

that, 

... it is desirable that the colony should increase every year, 
not only by the addition of French but also of Indians, who 
should be attracted as much as possible to live among the 
French, as after their children shall have been accustomed to 
our manners, and shall have been brought up with the French, 
[they] will form with them only one people. 1 

Duchesneau wrote to him, 

You will perceive, my Lord, by the census of the Indians that 
I have taken this year, that their number is increased by two 
hundred and seven persons. I make bold to state to you that, 
amidst all the plans presented to me to attract the Indians 
among us and to accustom them to our manners, that from 
which most success may be anticipated, without fearing the 
inconveniences common to all the others, is to establish villages 
of these people in our midst. 

It appears even that 'tis the best, since at the mission of the 
Mountain of Montreal ... in that of the Saut de la Prairie, 
de la Madeleine, — ... in those of Sillery and Loretio . . .the 
youth are all brought up a la frangaise, except in the matter of 
their food and dress. . . . 

. . . First those missions cannot be too much encouraged, 
nor too much countenance be given to the gentlemen of Saint 
Sulpice and the Jesuit Fathers among the Indians, inasmuch 
as they not only place the country in security and bring peltries 
hither, but greatly glorify God, and the King, as the eldest 

officers, their now divided bands would become the constituents of a 
vast wilderness empire, which in time might span the continent. Span- 
ish civilization crushed the Indian ; English civilization scorned and 
neglected him ; French civilization embraced and cherished him." 
(Parkman, The Jesuits in North America, vol. i, p. 13 1 ; cf. also Charle- 
voix, vol. iii, pp. 197-198, 203, and Eastman, Church and State, p. 117.) 
1 Marquis de Seignelay, Census, 1685. 



32 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [32 

son of the Church, by reason of the large number of good 
Christians formed there. Secondly . . . were he to order me 
to make, in his name, a few presents to the Indians of the 
Villages established among us, so as to attract a greater number 
of them ; and were he to destine a small fund for the Indian 
girls who quit the Ursulines, on being educated, to fit them out 
and marry them, and establish Christian families through their 
means. 

I shall not fail, my Lord, to exhort the Inhabitants to rear 
Indians, and shall not be discouraged giving them the example, 
notwithstanding three have already left me, after I had in- 
curred considerable expense on them, because I would oblige 
them to learn something. 1 

Although the attempt of the French to render the Indians 
less migratory, resulted in a very considerable number being 
gathered together in villages, the anticipated success in im- 
posing a European civilization upon the natives was, at best, 
only very imperfectly realized among a small remnant of 
these. 2 In 1680 Duchesneau estimated the number of 
Indians thus brought together in villages at 960. 3 The 
census of 1685 gives the number of Indians "established 
among the French " as 1538 souls, 4 and thirteen years later 
as 1 540, 5 the largest number recorded in any of the enumer- 
ations. 

1 M. Duchesneau to M. de Seignelay, Colon. Docs. N. Y., vol. ix, p. 
150; cf. also Rel. 1642- 1643, vol. xxiv, p. 229 et seq. 

* " It was long believed that it was necessary to draw the Indians 
near to Frenchify them; there is every reason to acknowledge that it 
was a mistake. Those who have approached us have not become 
French, and the French who frequented them have become savages. 
They affect to dress and live like them." (Charlevoix, vol. iii, p. 260.) 

Kalm, on his visit in 1749, wrote: "There is . . . scarce one instance 
of an Indian's adopting the European customs." (Kalm, o/>. cit., vol. 
iii, p. 154.) 

s Duchesneau, Nov. 13, 1680, cited in Census 1870-71, vol. 4, p. 14. 

* Census, 1685. * Ibid., 1698. 



2$] DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS 33 

This number represented only a small proportion of the 
total Indian population accessible to French missions at the 
end of the seventeenth century. While it is difficult to 
estimate this number, with any degree of accuracy, most 
probably it did not exceed 28,000. x Considering the mag- 
nitude of the undertaking, aiming as it did to incorporate 
the natives with the colonial population, and at the same 
time the relatively meagre resources of the colony, it is 
rather a creditable showing. The part the missionaries 
played in the scheme 2 undoubtedly helped to increase the 
standing of the clergy with the king and his ministers. 
Just how this process worked out in detail, however, will 
be more fully discussed in chapter IV on "The Church and 
State in the French Period." 

1 The censuses of the Iroquois taken in 1665 by the Jesuits, and in 1677 
by Wentworth Greenhalgh, give the number of warriors as 2,340 and 
2,150 respectively, which represented a population of 11,700 and 10,750. 
(Census 1870-1871, vol. 4, pp. liv-lxii.) At the time of the coming of the 
French the Hurons numbered about 16,000; however, the war of exter- 
mination that was waged among the different tribes of the Iroquois- 
Huron race brought about in 1648- 1649 the almost complete extinction 
of the Hurons. (Ibid., p. liv; cf. Re!., vol. i, p. 21.) In 1736 they num- 
bered only about 260 warriors, or 1,300 souls. (Censtis 1870- 1871, vol. 4, 
p. lx.) The Algonquins, Abenakis, Ottawas, etc., in the same year were 
estimated to have a total of 2,885 warriors, or a population of 14,425. 
On the basis of these estimates the total Tndian population from which 
these villages were likely to draw their neophytes would be between 
26,475 and 27,425. (Ibid.) 

- " Concerning missions to foreign tribes, likewise, I have written 
something to His Holiness, and about these missions, besides, I am able 
to assure your Eminences that they fulfil the highest hopes of the old 
workers in this vineyard, the Fathers of the Society [of Jesus] and of 
the new secular priests, who likewise have engaged in this work, they 
all are worthy of being held in remembrance and in affection by your 
Eminences. Again a number up to six hundred of baptized persons, 
but in a large part of infants, have been added from the barbarians, 
and we hope for more if the Sacred Congregation continue to support 
us with its favour." (Laval to their Eminences, Sept. 30, 1669, C. A., 
M. 128, p. 389. 



34 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [34 

The conditions described in the foregoing pages were 
evidently such as to lead to a relatively simple type of popu- 
lation so far as the white race was concerned. The pres- 
ence of the Indians did indeed produce a certain racial 
heterogeneity in the area under consideration, but for the 
problem we are dealing with, namely, the rise of ecclesias- 
tical control, the racial heterogeneity introduced by the pres- 
ence of the Indians was not of great importance. The chief 
effect on the church was to create the problem of how the 
Indians could be most readily converted to Christianity and 
thus be made amenable to the control of the state. The church 
in this endeavor became vitally interested in the relations of 
the civil authorities and the Indians. The representatives 
of the hierarchy in this manner often gained much influence 
with the officers of government. Although the presence of 
the Indians thus produced a racial heterogeneity, the net 
result in the church was perhaps to heighten its power ; the 
development of ecclesiastical control which resulted from 
the homogeneity and consequent social solidarity of the 
white population was merely intensified by the relations 
which grew out of the presence of the Indians. 

From an ethnic and religious point of view the early white 
population in Quebec was highly homogeneous. It was 
drawn almost entirely from France * and was composed of 
the few survivors of the early exploration and fur-trading 
expeditions to the St. Lawrence, the fur-trading company 
officials, the missionaries and their helpers, together with 
the colonists who began to come in numbers after 1632. 
For a time the growth of population was slow, numbering 
only about 375 in 1640, 600 in 1650 and 2,200 in 1663. 2 
During the next few years, owing largely to immigration, 

1 Garneau, Histoire du Canada, vol. ii, p. 102. 

2 Suite, R. S. C, Trans. 1905, sec. ii, pp. 1 n- 1 12. 



35>J 



DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS 



35 



the population increased more rapidly, as the following 
table shows: 



POPULATION OF QUEBEC 







Sexe* 


Married " ' Unmarried 


Per- 


Year 


Total 
population 










cent- 




















age 
mar- 






Male 
2034 


Female 


Male 
541 


Female 


Total 
1061 


Male 
1493 


Female 
66l 


Total 
2154 


ried* 


1665.... 


3215 1 


Il8l 


520 


33- 


1667 


3918 


2406 


1512 


644 


652 


1296 


1762 


860 


2622 33.08 


l68l.... 


9677 


5375 


4302 


1540 


*S19 


3°59 


3835 


2783 


66I8 3I-6 


I685.... 


IO725 


5897 


4828 


1 791 


1672 


3463 


4106 


3I5 6 


7262 32.3 


1688.... 


IO303 


5442 


4861 


'747 


I74I 


3488 


3695 


3120 


6815 33-85 


1692 


I IO75 


593° 


5'45 


1850 


1833 


3683 


4080 


3312 


73 02 33-25 


I695.... 


12786 


6943 


5843 


2179 


2168 


4347 


4764 


3675 


8439 34- 


1698.... 


I38I5 


739' 


6424 


2370 


2277 


4647 


502I 


4147 


9168 33*3 


1 706 • • • • 


16417 


8552 


7865 


2896 


2665 


556i 


5656 


5200 


10856 33.26 


I7I2.... 


18440 


9502 


8938 


2786 


2588 


5374 


6716 


635° 


13066 29.14 


I716.... 


20531 


10377 


10154 


3318 


3340 


6658 


7059 


6814 


13873 32.82 


I720.... 


24434 


12494 


1 1 940 


4609 


3782 


839« 


7885 


8158 


1 639 1 


34-34 


I 7 2 4 .... 


26710 


13699 


1 301 1 


4787 


45=12 


9i39 


8912 


8659 


17571 


34.23 


I73O.... 


33682 


«7364 


'6318 


6050 


5728 


1 1 778 


U3»4 


IO590 


21904 


34-97 


I734.... 


377 l6 


19049 


18667 


6736 


6593 


13329 


»23I3 


I2074 


2438735-34 


I737--- 


39970 


20708 


19262 


7378 


6804 


14182 


'333° 


I2458 


25788 


35-48 


1754.... 
1765-.. 


55009 3 
55110* 






6820 


6020 


12840 
21431 






38961 
33679 




28316 


26794 


IO922 


10509 


17394 


16285 


38.89 


1784-... 


1 1 3012" 


54064 


5°759 


20131 


19354 


39485 


33933 


3M05 


65338 




1790-. •• 


1 2931 1 3 


66013 


63298 


19375 


20569 


39944 


42920 


39604 


82524 





Immigration which had been stimulated by active organ- 



1 The number of families enumerated in the census of 1665 was 538; 
1667, 668; 1681, 1526; and 1765, 10660. 

2 The number enumerated as married includes the widowed, also. 

3 In the census of 1754, 3208; in 1784, 8189; and in 1790, 6943 of the 
population are unspecified as to age, sex, and conjugal relation. 

* This enumeration does not include the population of Montreal and 
Quebec, which was then estimated at 14,700 (Memorandum in Fabrique 
of Cap-Sante, cited in Census of Canada 1870-1871, vol. iv, p. xxxvi.) 

& The census facts for the various years in the table do not admit of 
determination of the population of marriageable age. 



36 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [36 

izations in France x before 1680, began to show a marked 
decline, so that the French Canadian population rapidly be- 
came a genetic aggregation, that is a population produced 
by natural increase rather than by migration. Since then, 
owing largely to fecundity, the population has, on an aver- 
age, about doubled every thirty years. 2 Thus it did not 
take long to produce a single population type. 

Material exists for a fairly detailed account of the various 
population elements that first entered the country. 

The actual settlement of the country may be said to date 
from the restoration of Canada to France in 1632. The 
Bretons who came earlier than that date, with Cartier and 
Roberval, as well as the sixteen men who were left by 
Chauvin at Tadousac in 1599, and even the twenty-five who 
wintered in Canada in 1608, met with such hardship that 
it is unlikely that any of their number were alive at this 
time. Probably twelve or fifteen of the younger men who 
came later were merged with the inhabitants who began to 
settle in the colony after the withdrawal of the English. 3 

The French settlers who sought homes were drawn from 
all parts of France. Of the 84 who came between 1632 
and 1640, 46 were from Perche, Beauce, Normandy and 
Picardy, and the rest from Champagne, Lorraine, Brie, 
Poitou, etc. Subsequent immigration, down to 1663, was 
drawn largely from the same provinces; Perche, Nor- 
mandy, Beauce, Picardy, and Anjou furnishing the larger 
number. In 1662-63, La Rochelle and Gascony, and the 
southwestern provinces, began to send settlers. During this 

1 " From 1667 till 1672 a committee was active in Paris, Rouen, La 
Rochelle and Quebec, to recruit men, women and young girls for Can- 
ada. This committee succeeded in effecting the immigration into Canada 
of about 4,000 souls." (Suite, R. S. C, Trans. 1005, sec. ii. p. 114.) 

2 Ibid. 

3 Suite, R. S. C, Trans. 1005, sec. ii, p. 102. 



37] DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS 37 

brief period, about 150 men with a few women came from 
La Rochelle, Gascony, and Poitou. 

From 1640 the marriage registers are fairly complete, al- 
though they do not always give the native province of the 
contracting parties. 1 In the records consulted by the author 
the native province of the contracting parties was given in 
1 ,807 cases. These show that, while the emigration to Can- 
ada was not of the same volume for all the provinces, it 
was nevertheless well distributed over the whole of France. 
The northwestern provinces, including Flanders, Artois, 
Brittany, Picardy, Normandy, Isle of France, Maine (and 
Perche), Orleanais, Anjou and Touraine, contributed 926 
or 51.2 per cent; the southwestern, including Poitou, Berry, 
Gascony, and Beam, contributed 619 or 34.3 per cent; 
and the eastern, including Champagne, Lorraine, Alsace, 
Franche-Comte, Burgundy, Nivernais, Bourbonnais, Lyon- 
nais, Auvergne, Dauphiny, Venaissin, Provence, Languedoc, 
Foix, and Rousillon, 262 or 14.5 per cent. 2 The larger 
proportion, as might be expected, came from the provinces 
nearer the sea-coast. The 26 of the total of 35 provinces 3 
mentioned as the birthplace of these French-born settlers, 
include 90 per cent of both the northwestern, and south- 
western, and 53.3 per cent of the eastern provinces. While 
these figures show that a larger proportion came from the 
provinces near the sea-coast, nevertheless they make it clear 
that the immediate ancestors of the French Canadians were 
fairly representative of all parts of France. 

1 Suite, R. S. C, Trans. 1905, sec. ii, p. 112; cf. Jugements et Delibera- 
tions du Conseil Souvcrain, vol. i, p. 929. 

2 Emigration an Canada, Nouvelles Acquisitions Francoises, 9279. 

3 Robinson, James Harvey, An Introduction to the History of West- 
ern Europe, map, pp. 568-569. Garneau's researches reveal an even 
larger number: for thirty provinces are mentioned as the birthplace of 
French-born settlers. These include all the northwestern, 90 per cent 
of the southwestern, and 73 per cent of the eastern provinces. (Gar- 
neau, vol. ii, p. 102; cf. Dionne, Les Canadiens-Francais: Origine des 
Families, pp. xxvii-xxxiii.) 



38 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [38 

These statistics, as well as the lists compiled by others, 
prove that the claim generally accepted that the French 
Canadians are the descendants of the Normans, is not as 
true as the claim that English-speaking Canadians are de- 
scendants of the English, without regard to the Scotch and 
Irish. Ferland's list, which he compiled from registers 
in Quebec, Three Rivers, and Montreal, and which is the 
most favorable to the Norman-ancestry theory, indicates 
that between 1641 and 1666 a somewhat larger proportion 
of immigrants came from the provinces nearer the sea-coast. 
Of the 339 cases considered, 210 or 61.9 per cent came from 
the northwestern provinces, and only 98 or 38.8 per cent 
from Normandy; of the remainder 104, or 30.7 per cent, 
came from the southwestern provinces, and 25 or 7.4 per 
cent from the eastern provinces. Twenty-three of the 35 
provinces are mentioned. These include 90 per cent of the 
northwestern, 80 per cent of the southwestern, and 40 per 
cent of the eastern provinces. 1 The researches of Suite, 
for almost the same period (1645-1666), furnish somewhat 
similar results. Of the 475 cases considered, 239 or 50.2 
per cent were from the northwestern provinces, and only 
136 or 28.6 per cent from Normandy; of the remainder 
215 or 45.3 per cent were from the southwestern, and 21 
or 4.5 per cent from the eastern provinces, 2 while the 
1,807 cases considered above, covering a period from 
1640, show that 51.2 per cent were drawn from the 10 
northern provinces and only 231 or 12.2 per cent were 
drawn from Normandy. 3 Garneau's researches in the reg- 
isters of Quebec before and during the year 1700, further 
substantiate the above. Of the 1,931 cases where the na- 
tive province was recorded, 1,096 or 56.8 per cent were 

1 Ferland, Cours d'Hisfoire du Canada, vol. i, pp. 512-516. 

2 Suite, R. S. C, Trans. 1005, sec. ii, p. 112. 

3 Emigration an Canada, Nouv. Acq. Fr„ 9279. 



39] DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS 39 

from the northwestern provinces, of whom only 341 or 
17.7 per cent were from Normandy; of the remainder 680 
or 35.2 per cent were from the southwestern provinces, and 
155 or 8 per cent from the eastern provinces. 1 

The average from the above four groups of statistics 
should be even more conclusive; showing that 54.3 per cent 
came from the northwestern provinces and only 17.5 per 
cent from Normandy; 35.5 per cent came from the south- 
western and 10.2 per cent from the eastern provinces. 

Thus in Canada the different racial elements of the 
French population found a common melting-pot. Ethno- 
graphical diversities of the Baltic, Danubian, Alpine and 
Mediterranean stocks, 2 which centuries had not entirely 
overcome in the motherland, gradually disappeared through 
amalgamation in Quebec. At the close of our period, 1791, 
the French Canadian population was a more highly homo- 
geneous genetic aggregation than even the population of 
France. 

A number of factors contributed to the thoroughness and 
rapidity which characterized amalgamation in Quebec. As 
has been pointed out, the earlier settlers were true pioneers, 
ever pushing on and spreading further and further along 
the St. Lawrence and its tributaries. Charlevoix observed 
" in clearing new land the colonists thought only of settling 
apart from each other, so as to be able to extend more . . . 
and by embracing an immense territory, compared to the 
scanty population contained in the colony, no one could be 
safe from the enemy's insults." 3 

1 Garneau, Histoire du Canada, vol. ii, pp. 101-102. 

2 For the ethnological meaning of these stocks, cf. William Z. Ripley. 
The Races of Europe, pp. 121, 131-157, 163-179; and Franklin H. Gid- 
dings, "What Shall We Be?" The Century Magazine, vol. lxv, pp. 
690-692. Also cf. Giddings* system of social classification outlined in 
An Introduction to the Study of Social Evolution, by F. S. Chapin, 
pp. 209-23 1. 

3 Charlevoix, vol. iii, p. 260. 



4 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [ 4 q 

This scattered distribution of the early settlers was con- 
tinually being complained of by the authorities, 1 as it left 
the colony an easy prey to the Indians; 2 but eventually it 
led to a more complete blending of the various elements in 
the population. This result was brought about by the fact 
that the authorities in their efforts to reduce the scattered 
distribution of the population did everything in their power 
to increase the rate of its growth. Especially did they en- 
deavor to promote marriage- 

It was usually single men, 3 in small groups of three or 
four, who pushed on to the frontier. 4 Later these single 
men were encouraged to marry either women from the 
older settlements, 5 or those brought over by private enter- 
prise, or through the agency of the king. 6 

Talon's policy of disbanding soldiers in the colony and 
settling them on the land, still further helped to blend the 
population. 7 For, in order to strengthen the more vulner- 

1 Charlevoix, op. cit., vol. iii, pp. 92-93, 309, 311; vol. iv, pp. 46, 264, 
275- 

2 " As the French settlements are isolated, the Iroquois come in bands 
to kill the people and burn the homes when one least thinks of it." 
(Rel. 1675-1677, vol. lx, p. 135; cf. also ibid., p. 143. 

3 Ferland, op. cit., vol. i, p. 260. 

4 Charlevoix, op. cit., vol. iii, p. 260. 

5 Suite, R. S. C, Trans. 1905, sec. ii, p. 103. 

6 Very few of the early pioneers were in a position to do as is done 
by many of our immigrants to-day, who, after taking up land and 
becoming in better circumstances, return to their native provinces for 
wives. Not only was there the almost insurmountable difficulty of 
financing the voyage, but the state considered it " bad policy to allow 
colonists ... to return to France." {Canada and its Provinces, vol. 
xv, Quebec, i, p. 52.) 

7 Edits et Ord. (1806), vol. ii, pp. I28e-i28g. Cf. "In some parts of 
Canada are great tracts of land belonging to single persons; from 
these lands, pieces of forty arpents long and four wide are allowed to 
each discharged soldier who intends to settle here." (Kalm, op. cit., 
vol. iii, p. 44.) 



41 ] DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS 4I 

able and outlying communities, and to defend them more 
easily from Indian attacks, the soldiers who married and 
settled in the colony were distributed among these scattered 
communities, 1 or the seigniories of the officers. 2 In 1667 
these soldier-settlers numbered 412 out of a total male popu- 
lation of 1,376 over 21 years of age. 3 

Thus, unlike many other early settlements in North 
America, the immigration to New France did not represent 
the transplanting of community groups of more or less 
closely related individuals. At its most flourishing period, 
1 667- 1 672,* it did not even represent an immigration of 
family groups, but as Parkman says, " it was mainly an 
immigration of single men and women." 5 

It is true, however, that previous to this, between 1632- 
1633, among the incoming settlers arriving from France 
there had been a considerable number of families. Occa- 
sionally small parties of three or four families more or less 
closely related were to be found among these immigrants. 6 

1 And, secondly, the settling in the country both of officers — Cap- 
tains, Lieutenants, and Ensigns, who unite themselves with the country 
by marriage, and secure fine grants, which they cultivate — and of the 
soldiers, who find good matches, and become scattered in all direc- 
tions." (Rel. 1664-1667, vol. 1, p. 245.) 

2 Edits et Ord. (1806), vol. ii, p. 128c et seq. 

3 Census 1667. The following passage from Kalm is also interesting: 
"This practice of disbanding soldiers in the colony seems to have 

been carried out more or less intermittently until the end of French 
rule." Kalm wrote in 1749 that, "One or two of the king's ships are 
annually sent from France to Canada, carrying recruits to supply the 
places of those soldiers who either died in the service or have got 
leave to settle in the country and turn farmers or to return to France. 
Almost every year they send a hundred or a hundred and fifty people 
over in this manner. With these people they likewise send over a 
great number of persons who have been found guilty of smuggling in 
France." (Kalm, vol. iii, p. 307.) 

4 Suite, R. S. C, Trans. 1005, sec. ii. p. 114. 

5 Parkman, Old Regime, vol. ii, p. 26. 

6 Suite, op. cit., p. in. 



42 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [42 

In 1634 the physician Giffard, brought " his whole house- 
hold composed of many persons " to people his seigniory 
of Beauport. 1 Of the non-clerical population of 282, in 
1640, 64 were married men and 64 married women. A 
considerable number of these must have been married be- 
fore coming to New France; for, of the 106 boys and girls 
recorded, only 54 had been born in the colony. 2 Even after 
1663, a fairly successful attempt was made by Talon, in 
1669, to have families emigrate to the colony. 3 But on the 
whole, cases of families coming to New France were com- 
paratively few. By far the greater number of settlers were 
unmarried men, who were compelled to seek their wives 
among the few girls already in the colony or among those 
who were being brought over from France. The fact that 
few family groups found their way into New France made 
the colony a virgin field for rapid and thorough amalga- 
mation. 

In order to overcome the inequality in the number of the 
sexes, so that the settlers might be provided with wives, 
large numbers of girls and women were brought over from 
France.* The Sulpicians at Montreal had been the first 
to aid female immigration to New France. The success of 
their efforts no doubt led the king to undertake and carry 
it on in a large way. These girls at first were drawn 

1 Rel. 1634-35, vol. vii, pp. 211, 213; cf. Ferland, op. cit., vol. i, p. 266. 

2 Suite, op. cit., p. in. 

3 Parkman, Old Regime, vol. ii, p. 26. 

4 " The king again sends us . . . sixty girls to populate the country." 
{Rel. 1664-1667, vol. 1, p. 177; cf. also ibid., pp. 215, 247; Rel. 1663-1665, 
vol. xliv, p. 161; Rel. 1666-1668, vol. Ii, p. 107.) "He has taken care to 
send over a few months ago a hundred and fifty girls, in order that 
the soldiers settling in New France may have families here." {Rel. 
1660-1670, vol. liii, p. 37.) Cf. La Hontan (Pinkerton), op. cit., p. 261 ; 
Charlevoix, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 67. 



43] DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS 43 

largely from the homes for poor girls in the cities of Paris l 
and Lyons, one hundred coming during the summer of 
1665. 2 Two years later eighty-four were sent from Dieppe 
and twenty-five from La Rochelle. These were apparently 
from a better class, since among them, it was said, were 
"fifteen or twenty of pretty good birth; several of them 
are really demoiselles, and tolerably well brought up." * 
As many of these city girls, however, did not make very 
good settlers' wives for a new country, efforts were directed 
to obtain girls, through the co-operation of the cures, from 
the rural districts. 4 In a letter of Colbert to the Arch- 
bishop of Rouen he suggested that, " in the parishes about 
Rouen, fifty or sixty girls might be found who would be 
glad to go to Canada to be married " ; and he adds, " I beg 
you to employ your credit and authority with the cures of 
thirty or forty parishes to try to find in each of them one 
or two girls disposed to go voluntarily for the sake of a 
settlement in life." 5 These strong, healthy peasant girls 
were much sought after by the new settlers, because they 
could adapt themselves much more readily to the hardships 
of pioneer life. In 1672 only eleven girls had been sent 
out, because Talon had requested that, since the colonists 
had daughters just becoming of marriageable age, no more 
be sent from France for a time. Frontenac complained of 
this to Colbert, stating that " if a hundred and fifty girls 
and as many servants had been sent out this year, they 

1 " The ship from Normandy arrived, with 82 girls and women — 
among others, 50 from a charitable institution in Paris, where they have 
been well taught." (Rel. 1663- 1665, vol. xlix, p. 169.) 

2 Parkman, Old Regime, vol. ii, p. 15. 

3 Talon a Colbert, 27 Oct., 1667, cited in Parkman, ibid., pp. 15-16. 

4 Charlevoix, op. cit., vol. iii, pp. 80-81. 

5 Colbert a I'archeveque de Rouen, 27 Feb., 1670, cited in Parkman, 
Old Regime, vol. ii, p. 18. 



44 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [44 

would all have received husbands and masters within a 
month." » 

The method followed in bringing out girls from France 
further contributed to a thorough fusion of the various 
racial elements; both through the plan of recruiting the 
peasant girls from many different parishes throughout 
France, 2 and of arranging marriages on the arrival of the 
girls. 3 

In the arrangement of these marriages, as far as we know, 
no consideration was given to racial similarity. Selection 
was determined largely on the economic rating of the pro- 
spective husbands, and the attractiveness, physical and other- 
wise, of the girls. To facilitate this plan, the girls were di- 
vided into three different groups, and La Hontan says, "the 
sparks that wanted to be married made their addresses to 
the . . . governesses, to whom they were obliged to give 
an account of their goods and estates before they were al- 
lowed to make their choice in the three seraglios." 4 

Until the British conquest in 1759, marriage in New 
France was free from the impediments of racial or religious 
differences. The charter establishing the Company of One 
Hundred Associates had specifically ordered that only 
French Catholics should be permitted to live in the colony. 5 
From time to time, notwithstanding, some Huguenots found 
their way into the colony.- Few, however, were allowed to 
remain unless they abjured their faith. 6 In the commission 

1 Frontenac a Colbert, 2 Nov., 1672, cited in Parkman, Old Regime, 
vol. ii, p. 16. 

2 Colbert a I'archeveque de Rouen, 27 Fev., 1670, cited in ibid., p. 18. 

3 Talon a Colbert, 10 Nov., 1670, cited in ibid., p. 19. 

4 La Hontan (Pinkerton), p. 261. 5 £dits et Ord. (1803), vol. i, p. 3. 

6 " A number of Heretics being among these troops, efforts were ex- 
erted, and successfully, for their conversion; more than a score made 
abjuration of their heresy." (Rel. 1664-1667, vol. 1, p. 85; cf. Juge- 
ments et Delib., vol. i, pp. 262-263; Salone, op. cit., p. 45; C. A., B. 74, 
pt. i, p. 50.) 



45] DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS 45 

of the king to the governor and Intendant, in 1665, in- 
structions had been very explicit. They were to use their 
influence, "to bring the people to a knowledge of God and 
the light of the faith and of the Catholic religion, apostolic 
and Roman, and to establish the exercise of it to the ex- 
clusion of all other." 1 Every ship seems to have been 
watched for heretics, 2 and such severe pressure was brought 
to bear on all classes alike, that nothing was left for the 
Protestant intending to make a home in New France, but 
to recant. 3 Many conversions are recorded, especially 
among those who through illness found their way to the 
hospitals. 4 Consequently, the number of Protestants in the 
colony, during the French regime, was always so small as 
to constitute practically no impediment to amalgamation. 

Every encouragement was given to marriage, and especi- 
ally to early marriage. Boys and girls who married under 
twenty and sixteen years respectively, received from the 
crown twenty livres each. 5 To girls sent out from France 
by the king's order a dowry, called " the present of the 
king," was given on their marriage. 6 Even more was done 
to encourage marriage among the noblesse. La Motte, of 

1 Edits et Ord. (1806), vol. ii, p. 36. 

2 Rel. 1664-1667, vol. 1, p. 85. 

3 A captain of one of Monseigneur de Tracy's companies made his 
abjuration of heresy in the principal church. (Rel. 1663-65, vol. xlix, 
p. 169.) 

4 " Among the patients coming to our hospital there were many dis- 
eased both in body and in soul. Some were Huguenots ; and, thanks 
be to God, they all made public abjuration of their heresy.' {Rel. 
1663- 1665, vol. xlix, p. 203; cf. ibid., p. 169; Rel. 1656-57, vol. xliii, pp. 
33-35; Rel. 1650-60, vol. xlv, p. 71; Rel. 1664-67, vol. 1, pp. 85, 87, 155; 
Rel. 1666-68, vol. Ii, p. 109.) 

5 Edits et Ord. (1803), vol. i, p. 58. 

8 Ibid., vol. i, p. 58; cf. also La Hontan (Pinkerton), o/>. cit.. p. 262; 
Parkman, Old Regime, vol. ii, p. 21. 



46 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [46 

the Carignan-Salieres regiment, was given 1500 livres for 
marrying and settling in the country. A further sum of 
6000 livres was given to the other officers who married, and 
a fund of 12,000 livres was set aside to provide encourage- 
ment for others who would follow their example. 1 The 
court considered it of the utmost concern that all should 
be married. Colbert urged Talon, 

to commend it to the consideration of the whole people, that 
their prosperity, their substance, and all that is dear to them 
depend upon a general resolution never to be departed from, 
to marry youths of eighteen or nineteen years and girls at 
fourteen or fifteen ; since abundance can never come to them 
except through an abundance of men. 2 

On the other hand, severe pressure was brought to bear 
upon those who delayed marriage. Parents, whose boys of 
twenty years and girls of sixteen remained unmarried, were 
to be subject to a fine. 3 Before the ships arrived from 
France with girls, Talon issued orders that all single men 
were expected to be married within a fortnight after the 
arrival of the ships. 4 Unmarried men were even forbidden 
by Talon the right to fish, hunt, trade with the Indians, or 
to go into the woods. 5 Obdurate bachelors, Colbert wrote, 
" should be made to bear additional burdens, and be ex- 
cluded from all honors ; it would be well even to add some 
marks of infamy." 6 It was not likely that the unmarried 
officers were subject to any such constraint. La Hontan, 
however, makes it clear that social and even ecclesiastical 

1 Colbert a Talon, 20 Fev., 1668, cited in Parkman, ibid., pp. 14-15. 

2 Ibid. 

3 £dits et Ord. (1803), vol. i, p. 58. 

4 Parkman, Old Regime, vol. ii, p. 22. 

6 Talon au Minislre, 10 Oct., 1670; ibid., p. 22. 
6 Lettre du 20 Fev., 1668, cited in ibid., p. 23. 



47 ] DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS 47 

pressure was not wanting to induce the officers to marry, 
remarking that " after a man has made four visits to a 
young woman, he is obliged to unfold his mind to her father 
and mother; he must either talk of marriage, or if he does 
not, both he and she lie under a scandal," and that he knew 
of " several young women, whose lovers after denying the 
fact, and proving before the judges the scandalous conver- 
sations of their mistresses, were forced, upon the persua- 
sion of the ecclesiastics, to swallow the bitter pill, and take 
the same girls in marriage." " In fine," he says, " most of 
the officers marry in this country." 1 

These efforts to encourage marriage met with a large 
measure of success, as is seen by the following census re- 
turns. Among the total population of 3.315 in 1665-1666, 
there were 1061 or 32 per cent either married or widowed; 
in 1667, with a population of 3918, there were 1296 or 
33.07 per cent either married or widowed; in 1685, with 
a population of 12,263, there were 4218 or 34.4 per cent 
either married or widowed; and in 1688, with a population 
of 11,562, there were 4288 or 37.17 per cent either married 
or widowed. 2 This shows an increase in the proportion of 
married persons to the total population of 5.17 per cent, 
during the period of greatest stimulation. 3 

The statistics of age in relation to marriage show that, 
in 1 665- 1 666, of the 491 married women, 8 or 1.63 per 
cent were between the ages of 11 and 15 years, which was 
8 per cent of all the girls between those ages; that 45 or 
9.16 per cent were between the ages of 16 and 20 years, 
which was 69.23 per cent of all the girls between these 
ages ; and that 239 or 46.64 per cent were between the ages 

1 La Hontan (Pinkerton), op. cit., pp. 366-367. 

2 Censuses 1665-1666, 1667, 1685, 1688. 

3 Owing to the rapid increase of the population under marriageable 
age these different periods are not strictly comparable. 



4 8 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [48 

of 21 or 30 years, which was 91.57 per cent of all the 
women between these ages. Of the 167 women between 
the ages of 31 and 50 years only 3.6 per cent were unmar- 
ried. Among the male population of 1250 at 21 years and 
over, only 528 or 42.25 per cent were married, 120 or 9.9 
per cent of these were between 21 and 30 years of age, and 
none were under 21 years. 

According to the census of 1667 there were 626 married 
women. Of these only 2, or .032 per cent, were between 
the ages of 11 and 15 years, which was 1.7 per cent of all 
the girls in this age-group, a considerably smaller percent- 
age than in the previous census. The number of married 
between the ages of 16 and 21, however, was larger than in 
the previous census, being 65 or 13.8 per cent, which was 
63.72 per cent of all the girls between the ages of 16 and 
20 years; while 267, or 41.5 per cent, were between the 
ages of 21 and 30 years, which was 92.39 per cent of all 
the women between 21 and 30. Of the 246 women between 
the ages of 31 and 50 years, 21, or 6.5 per cent, were un- 
married. This increase over the previous enumeration 
would seem to indicate that not all of the women sent out 
from France were under 30 years of age. The proportion 
of married men of 21 years and over to the total number 
is slightly smaller, being only 40 per cent as compared with 
42.25 per cent. One boy, however, between 16 and 20 
was reported as married. 1 Marriages are on record of 
girls as young as 12 and 13 years of age. 2 

Not only was encouragement given to marriage, but in- 
ducements were held out for large families. The king's 
edict of April, 1670 declared, 

in order to increase the number of children . . . that in future 
all inhabitants of Canada who shall have children living to 

1 Censuses 1665- 1666 and 1667. 

2 Rel. 1650-1651, vol. xxxvi, p. 246 cf. Rel. 1656-1657, vol. xliii, p. 321. 



49 ] DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS 49 

the number of ten, born in legitimate wedlock, not being 
priests, monks, or nuns, shall be paid out of the moneys sent 
by his majesty to said country a pension of 300 Ikres a year, 
and those who shall have twelve, 400 livres; and that to this 
effect they shall be required to present to the Intendant of 
justice, police and finance, established in the said country, the 
number of their children in the month of June or July of 
each year; who, having verified the same, shall order the pay- 
ment of the said pensions, half in cash and the other half at 
the end of each year. 1 

Furthermore, those having the largest families in their re- 
spective parishes and communities were to have the pre- 
ference, both as regards rank in the church, and position of 
honor in the local community. The edict required : 

That there be made by the Sovereign Council situated at 
Quebec for the said province, a general division of all the 
inhabitants by parishes and villages and that there be given 
some honors to the principal inhabitants who will take part 
in the affairs of each village or community, either according 
to their rank in the church or otherwise; and that those in- 
habitants who have the greater number of children be always 
preferred to the others, unless some good reasons prevent it. 2 

These measures of the king, under the progressive policy 
of Colbert, had a marked influence in stimulating the birth- 
rate during this period, 3 and in establishing a fecundity 
among the French Canadians exceeded only in recent 
years by Roumania. 4 Bishop Laval, in a letter in 1668, 

1 Edits et Ord. (1803), vol. i, pp. 57-58. 
' Ibid. 

3 " The people multiply here at least twice as fast as in France." ReL 
1664- 1667, vol. 1, p. 179. 

4 During the period 1903-1911 the minimum birth-rate in Quebec was 
358 and the maximum 412 per 10,000. Quebec Statistical Year Book, 
1914. p. 91- 



50 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [50 

wrote, " in this country there are generally 8, 10, 12, and 
sometimes as many as 15 and 16 children." x According 
to the census returns for 1665- 1666, the percentage of the 
population under one year was 5.38; for 1667, 5.82; and 
for 1 68 1, 4-64. 2 These percentages are more than equiva- 
lent 3 to a birth-rate of 538, 582, and 464 per 10,000 for 
these years. 

Furthermore, the social barriers which prevented marri- 
age between the different classes finally gave way with the 
decline of the seigniorial system, and the widening of eco- 
nomic and educational advantages. The noblesse repre- 
sented the landed aristocracy in New France, and were 
drawn from the nobility in France, and the military and 
civil officials who settled in the colony. 4 

In the early period of the colony the noblesse had been 
able to maintain their station with considerable dignity and 
exclusiveness ; and " as far as their means permitted in the 
Chateau of St. Louis they imitated the splendour and cere- 
mony of the court of Versailles." While never a very 
numerous class, yet as seigniors, and military and civil offi- 
cials, they had considerable influence with the bourgeoisie 

1 Rel. 1667- 1669, vol. Hi, p. 49. 

- Censuses 1665-1666, 1667 and 1681. 

3 The number of children born in any year preceding any census date 
is equivalent to the number of living children under one year enu- 
merated in the census plus the number of children under one year 
who died during the preceding year. The infant mortality in Quebec 
then was in all probability even higher before 1681 than it is now. 
Talon reported in 1671 that between 600 and 700 children had been 
born in the colony during the year {Talon a Colbert, 2 Nov., 1671), 
while the actual returns for 1681, with at least twice the population, 
gave the total number of children under one year as only 449, (Cen- 
sus, 1 68 1.) 

4 Const. Docs., vol. i, p. 59. 

5 A Political and Historical Account of Lower Canada, ascribed to 
either De Salles or Latterriere, p. 115. 



£1 ] DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS 5 1 

and habitants. 1 After the British conquest many returned 
to France. 2 Maseres states that in 1774 there were twenty- 
two families of noblesse in Canada; 3 and Governor Carle- 
ton, in his testimony in the House of Commons, in the 
same year, estimated their numbers at 150. 4 

Many of the noblesse, during the latter period of French 
rule, had found it economically impossible to maintain the 
former social status of their families, and some had gradu- 
ally sunk to the level of the habitant. 5 After the conquest, 
however, the situation of those who remained was rendered 
still more difficult. About seventy of these had been in 
the French service in the colony ; 6 and as the British gov- 
ernment did not even recognize their rank, 7 much less make 
any official provision for them, they found it increasingly 
difficult to maintain their station. 8 

But the greatest cause of the decline of the nobility was 
their aversion to work, and their desire to live as " gentils- 
honuncs de compagne " as in France. 9 Second only to their 
dislike for farm work, was their disgust for trade, 10 and 

1 C. A., Q., vol. 5, pt. i, p. 262. 

2 Francis Maseres, Proceedings of the British . . . to obtain an House 
of Assembly . . . , p. 165. i Ibid. 

4 Sir Henry Cavendish, Debates of the House of Commons in the 
Year 1774, p. 107. 

5 " He represents that there are many families of Gentlemen, very 
worthy persons in extreme want, not even having bread, and solicits 
some charity for them." (Denonville to the Minister. Colon. Docs. N. 
Y., vol. ix. p. 317; cf. Duchesneau to the Minister. Nov. 10, 1679. cited 
by Munro, Docs. S. T., pp. 49-53.) 

6 C. A., Q. 5, pt. i, p. 263. 7 Cavendish, op. cit., pp. 118, 119. 

8 C. A., Q. 5, pt. i, p. 263. 

9 Duchesneau to the Minister, Nov. 10, 1679: cited by Munro, op. cit., 
P- 49- 

10 " The Genteel people of the country despise merchants.'' C. A., 
Q. 2, p. 378; cf. also Milnes to Portland, cited by Egerton and Grant, 
Select Speeches and Dispatches Relating to the Constitutional Histoiy 
of Canada, p. III. 



5 2 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [52 

their contempt for the educational opportunities offered in the 
colony for their children. Over against these factors, which 
were undermining their social and economic status, was the 
growth, after the conquest, of democratic ideals, and the 
widening of opportunities for economic independence af- 
forded the trading and merchant classes. The noblesse, 
now no longer able to maintain their isolation by privilege, 
or superior wealth or intelligence, ceased to exist as a separ- 
ate class. 1 Heterogeneity in social classes ceased to be of 
importance. 

'"The English introduced among the population a spirit of traffic; 
they taught them to appreciate the advantages of individual wealth and 
to feel that a man might be of importance even though not descended 
from a noble race. . . . The bourgeoisie ... of the towns caught the 
spirit — laboured, and laboured successfully, to accumulate wealth for 
themselves ; and being a frugal and prudent race, they quickly found 
themselves possessed of fortunes more than sufficient to cope with the 
broken-down noblesse around them. They, therefore, immediately 
began to compete with this fading generation both in political and 
social life. The nobles . . . looked with disdain upon the occupation 
of a merchant. To obtain their own livelihood they considered a deg- 
radation. To live upon the labour of others they deemed honorable 
prerogative. In the present state of affairs, however, they possessed 
no power to wring from other men the means of splendour or subsis- 
tence; being idle, they became wretchedly poor. The old noblesse, un- 
fortunate for themselves, neglected the education of their children ; 
France was no longer before them as a model to be imitated or a semi- 
nary for instruction. . . . To the Canadian seminaries of instruction 
they paid little attention, supposing them incapable of conveying that 
species of knowledge which they desired. . . . The children of these 
noble families were consequently brought up in idleness and ignorance. 
The bourgeoisie, in the mean time, having themselves acquired riches, 
sought out for means of imparting instruction to their children. Their 
own seminaries were alone within their power; and not being diverted 
by higher aspirations, they contented themselves with improving that 
which they possessed. The rising generation received a fair and useful 
education, by the aid of the priesthood; and were thus enabled to 
surpass their noble competitors in knowledge as their fathers had be- 
fore surpassed them in wealth. . . . When the people thought it of 
importance to have efficient members in the House of Representatives, 



53] DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS 53 

To summarize the points of this chapter, it has been 
shown that the outcome of the demographic conditions in 
Canada before 1791 was the development of a highly homo- 
geneous population. The magnificent system of waterways, 
on the one hand, provided an easy means of access to the 
newer districts while the seigniorial system of land tenure 
on the other, tended to multiply scattered communities. 
Within the local settlements, however, the relatively dense 
populations along the river banks and the unusual oppor- 
tunities for inter-communication among the inhabitants 
gradually developed a high degree of mental unity. 

The conditions of life were hard, but for the industrious 
and persevering there was a plentiful food supply which 
made possible a rapid increase in population. Immigration 
drawn from all parts of France, coupled with the wide- 
spread distribution of the immigrants on their arrival in 
the colony, prepared the way for the thorough amalgama- 
tion of the early French stock, so that the encouragement 
given by the government to early marriage and large fami- 
lies soon made the French Canadian population a much 
more homogeneous aggregation than even the population 
of France. 

the men of action and education, viz. the bourgeoisie, were immediately 
selected and the nobles passed from the stage at once and forever." 
{A Pol. and Hist. Account of L. C. pp. 115-117.) 



CHAPTER III 
Social and Moral Solidarity 

The homogeneity of race in the population of New 
France emphasized in the preceding chapter, is not more 
striking than the very definite type of social and moral 
solidarity which resulted from it. In trying to discover 
the chief features of this unity, one cannot fail to be struck 
with the remarkable degree of homogeneity existing in oc- 
cupation, language, religion and social customs, and to note 
the absence of differentiating interests both within and with- 
out the church. These conditions, as well as the type of 
mind and character that was developed among the French 
Canadians, have constituted the chief factors in the re- 
markable social and moral solidarity which was developed. 

The uniformity in occupation is strikingly brought out 
by the fact that after the restoration of Canada to the 
French in 1632, agriculture, from a small beginning, steadily 
gained in importance until it became the leading industry 
of New France. The fur trade, although receiving the 
chief attention of the trading companies, does not appear 
to have been considered of first importance, after 1640, by 
the people themselves. Even after 1674, when the mono- 
poly of the fur companies had been withdrawn, 1 and private 
fur trading was at its height, probably at least sixty per cent 
of the population were still engaged in agriculture. 

The census of 1681 showed that 372 males, or only 11.6 
per cent of all the men between the ages of 21 and 70 years, 2 

1 Edits et Ord. (1803), vol. i, pp. 63-67. 2 Census, 1681. 

54 [54 



55] SOCIAL AND MORAL SOLIDARITY 



3 3 



were engaged in the trades, commerce, and the professions. 
Eight hundred, or 24.9 per cent, according to the estimate 
of the hit aidant Duchesneau, in 1680, 1 were trappers or 
voyageurs, or what were more commonly called coureurs 
de bois. 2 The remaining 2037, or 63 per cent, must have 
been engaged in agricultural pursuits. 3 In 1695, 9769 of 
the total population of 12,786, or 76.4 per cent, were living 
in the rural parishes. 4 In 1739, 33,510 of the total popu- 

1 Duchesneau's estimate of 800 coureurs de bois was probably in ex- 
cess of the actual number, if we may judge by his estimate of the total 
population at 10,679, which was shown, by actual enumeration the fol- 
lowing year, to have been only 9,677. (Census, 1681.) Duchesneau, 
in another estimate, places the number of the coureurs de bois at 500: 
" What I have written on the subject of the number and long absence 
of the coureurs de bois, my Lord, justifies sufficiently my representa- 
tion that this country was diminishing in population and that the farms 
were uncultivated. Two years' absence of five hundred persons (ac- 
cording to the lowest calculation), the best adapted to farm work, can- 
not increase agriculture; and this is confirmed by the complaints of 
seigniors, who do not participate in the profits of the coureurs de bois, 
that they cannot find men to do their work." (M. Duchesneau to M. 
de Seignelay, Colon. Docs. N. Y„ vol. ix, p. 151.) Evidently the esti- 
mate of 800 was sufficiently large to include all those engaged in the 
fur trade. The licensed fur-traders could never have been many, for 
the edict only provided that licenses should be granted for 25 canoes, 
with three men to each canoe, or 75 men in all. "His .Majesty was 
graciously pleased to grant an amnesty to the disobedient, with author- 
ity to issue twenty-five licenses yearly to twenty-five canoes, having 
each three men, to trade among the savages ; and in order that the 
favor might not be abused, his Majesty, by his edict, enacted punish- 
ments against those who should go trading without license." (Memoir 
of M. Duchesneau on Irregular Trade in Canada, Colon. Docs. X. V., 
vol. ix, p. 159.) This edict was revoked and restored a number of 
times, and restored finally in 1726, but the number of licenses or the 
number of men to a canoe was never increased. (Ibid., pp. 159, 954, 
958; cf. also Rel. 1696-1702. vol. lxv, p. 272: Edits ct Ord. (1803), vol. 
i, pp. 258, 330: La Hontan, pp. 329, 330. ^?, and 283; Charlevoix, vol. iii. 
PP- 195, 3io; vol. iv, p. 275.) 

2 Cf. citation to Coureurs de bois, pp. 60-61. 

5 Census, 1681. 

4 Census. 1695. 



5 6 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [56 

lation of 42,701, or 71.5 per cent, were living in the rural 
parishes; 1 and in 1754, 42,200 of the total population of 
55,009, or 76.7 per cent, were living in the rural parishes. 2 

After the conquest, with the decline of the fur trade, and 
the passing of general trading more and more into the hands 
of the British, the proportion of French Canadians in the 
rural parishes steadily increased. In 1765, 54,466 of the 
total population of 69,8 io, 3 or 78 per cent, were in the rural 
parishes; and in 1790, 128,098 of the total population of 
161,31 1, 4 or 79.4 per cent, were to be found in the rural 
parishes. With the English population growing more 
rapidly in the cities and towns, it is most probable that at 
the end of our period (1791), over 80 per cent of French 
Canadians were living in the open country, or in small rural 
Villages, and possessing all the traditionalism and con- 
servatism, peculiar to a homogeneous agricultural population. 

Uniformity of language further intensified the social 
solidarity resulting from uniformity of occupation. At 
the time of the conquest French was practically the only 
language spoken. Although immigrants had been drawn 
from all parts of New France, and many from provinces 
where little, if any, French was spoken, so complete had 
been the fusion of these early settlers, among whom the 
French-speaking predominated, that, in a comparatively 
short time, the French language had received universal 
acceptance. 

1 Census, 1739. 

2 Census, 1754. 

s This includes an estimated population for Quebec and Montreal of 
14,700, and also that of Three Rivers by actual enumeration of 644. 
(Census, 1765.) 

4 This includes an estimated population for Quebec and Montreal of 
32,000 and also the population of Three Rivers, by enumeration, of 
1,213. (Census, 1790.) 



57 ] SOCIAL AND MORAL SOLIDARITY 57 

After the conquest, there was a desire on the part of the 
British gradually to introduce English. The opposition, 
however, which the government had met with in attempt- 
ing to introduce English law had, to some extent, called 
its attention to the seriousness of the language problem. 
This opposition was soon to take organized form. During 
the readings of the Quebec Act, the representative of the 
French Canadians urged upon the British Parliament that 
not only should no attempt be made to introduce the English 
language, and that all officials sent out from England 
should be familiar with French, but also that French should 
be the official language- 1 The chief request of the petition 
was not granted, although it most probably influenced Par- 
liament, in making French equal with English as the official 
language of Quebec. 2 

1 "And lastly, one point which deserves attention and which ought to 
be settled, is that the French language being the general, and indeed 
almost the only language used in Canada, it is obvious that no stran- 
ger who goes there, having only his own interests at heart, can serve 
them well, except as he is thoroughly versed in this language, and 
obliged to make use of it continually in all the special matters which 
he has on hand; that it is completely impossible, taking into account 
the distance between the establishments and the dwellings throughout 
the country, ever to attempt to introduce the English language gener- 
ally; for all these reasons, and others not here specified, it is indis- 
pensable that the French language should be ordered to be the only 
one employed in everything which deals with and shall be settled as a 
public business, whether in the courts of justice or in the assembly of 
the legislative corps, &c, for it would be a cruel thing to attempt to 
reduce unnecessarily almost all those interested in public affairs to the 
condition of never being acquainted henceforth with what shall be 
discussed or decided throughout the country." (Chartier de Lotbiniere, 
Const. Docs., vol. i, p. 399.) 

1 *' That bills relative to the criminal laws of England in force in this 
province, and to the rights of the Protestant Clergy, as specified in the 
act of the 31st year of his Majesty. Chap. 31, shall be introduced in the 
English language: and the Bills relative to the Laws, customs, usages 
and civil rights of this Province, shall be introduced in the French 
language, in order to preserve the unity of the texts. That such bills 



58 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [58 

This attained, the hierarchy was not slow to recognize 
in the French language the strongest bulwark of Catholi- 
cism against the Anglicizing influences of their conquerors. 
Their ability to retain control of education furnished the 
means of perpetuating the French language ; with the result 
that every effort of the government and the Church of 
England to establish public schools for the teaching of 
English in the parishes, 1 was frustrated by the opposition 
of the hierarchy. The bourgeois, it was true, soon became 
more or less familiar with English, 2 but the great mass of 
the people knew only one language. 3 

In this way the French language, in the hands of the 
church, became an effective weapon of isolation, warding off 
modernism in every form. For, on the one hand. English 

as are presented shall be put into both languages ; that those in Eng- 
lish be put into French, and those presented in French be put into 
English by the Clerk of the House or his assistants, according to the 
directions they may receive, before they be read the first time — and 
when so put shall also be read each time in both languages — well un- 
derstood that each member has a right to bring in any bill in his own 
language, but that after the same shall be translated, the text shall be 
considered to be that of the language of the law to which said bill 
hath reference." (Extracts from the Rules and Regulations of the 
House of Assembly, 'Lower Canada, Const. Docs., vol. ii, p. 105.) 

1 C. A., Q. 86, pt. 2, p. 372; cf. also ibid., Q. 48, pt. ii, p. 673; Q. 86, 
pt. i, p. 96; Q. 84, p. 293; Q. 84, p. 273. 

2 Pol. and Hist. Account of L. C, p. 163. 

3 ". . . and more especially it is notorious that they have not hitherto 
made any progress toward the attainment of the language of the 
country under whose government they have the happiness to live. This 
total ignorance of the English language on the part of the Canadians 
draws a distinct line of demarcation between them and His Majesty's 
British subjects in this province, alike injurious to the welfare and 
happiness of both ; and continues to divide into two separate peoples 
those who by their situation, their common interests and their equal 
participation of the same laws and the same form of Government 
should naturally form one people. . . ." (Bishop [Ang.] to Lieut. 
Gov. Milnes, C. A., Q. 84, p. 188; cf. also ibid., p. 273.) 



59] SOCIAL AND MORAL SOLIDARITY 59 

ideas were successfully shut out, and on the other, all French 
literature was so carefully censored that only those French 
ideas which were in complete harmony with the church were 
allowed to get in. 1 The barrier of language thus became 
another stepping stone in the rise of ecclesiastical control- 
Uniformity of language, however, was not the only factor 
which, by intensifying social solidarity, made ecclesiastical 
control easy. 

The absence of interests and organizations other than the 
church contributed powerfully to this result by confining the 
leadership of the social life of the people to the church alone. 
The whole system of both church and state tended to curb 
initiative. The church demanded an unquestioned obedi- 
ence. " Humility, obedience, purity, meekness, modesty, 
simplicity, chastity and charity " 2 were the chief virtues : 
independence of judgment, and the quest for truth had no 
place. "Humility and obedience head the list; for in unques- 
tioning submission to the spiritual director lay the guaranty 
of all other merits." 3 So severe and offensive did La 
Mothe-Cadillac consider the authority assumed by the clergy 
that he says, " Neither men of honor nor men of parts are 
endured in Canada; nobody can live here but simpletons 
and slaves of the ecclesiastical domination." 4 

1 " They prohibit and burn all the books that treat of any other sub- 
ject but devotion. When I think of this tyranny I cannot but be en- 
raged at the impertinent zeal of the curate of this city. This inhuman 
fellow came one day to my lodging, and finding the romance of the 
Adventures of Petronius upon my table, he fell upon it with an un- 
imaginable fury, and tore out almost all the leaves.'' (La Hontan 
Pinkerton ed., op. cit., p. 279; cf. also C. A., M. 384, p. 106.) 

2 Ancien reglement du Petit Seminaire dc Quebec, cited by Parkman, 
Old Regime, vol. ii. p. 163. 

3 Parkman, Old Regime, vol. ii, p. 163; cf. pp. 145-155. 

4 La Mofhe-Cadillae a s8 Sept., 1694, cited by Parkman, vol. viii, p. 
151 ; cf. La Hontan, p. 207. 



60 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [60 

The state discouraged its citizens from having any voice 
in directing public affairs. They were not even permitted 
to associate with one another for the regulation of their 
local municipal affairs. The land tenure, while it pro- 
moted the habitant's immediate comfort, was singularly suc- 
cessful in checking his desire to better his condition. The 
whole influence was unimproving and repressive, and prac- 
tically rendered impossible the development of an active and 
progressive people. 1 

The repressive policy of both church and state was, more- 
over, rendered less difficult among the settled population 
by the tendency of the young men to become courews de 
bois.* These restless spirits, who were unable to withstand 
the repression and restraint of the parishes, sought the 
freedom of the interior. Denonville writes: 

This has come to pass, that, from the moment a boy can carry 
a gun, the father cannot restrain him and dares not offend 
him. You can judge the mischief that followed. These dis- 
orders are always greatest in the families of those who are 
gentilshommes, or who through laziness or vanity pass them- 
selves off as such. Having no resource but hunting, they 

1 Durham, p. 16; cf. Cahall, The Sovereign Council of New France, 
p. 22; Can. and its Prov., vol. xv, Quebec, i, pp. 287-288. 

* " Against absolute authority there was a counter influence, rudely 
and wildly antagonistic. Canada was at the very portal of the great 
interior wilderness. The St. Lawrence and the Lakes were the high- 
way to the domain of savage freedom ; and thither the disenfranchised, 
half-starved seignior, and the discouraged habitant who could find no 
market for his produce, naturally enough betook themselves. Their 
lessons of savagery were well learned, and for many a year a bound- 
less license and stiff-handed authority battled for the control of Can- 
ada. Nor to the last were Church and state fairly masters of the field. 
French rule was drawing towards its close when the intendant com- 
plained that though twenty-eight companies of regular troops were 
quartered in the colony, there were not soldiers enough to keep the 
people in order." (Parkman, Old Regime, vol. ii, p. 198.) 



6i] SOCIAL AND MORAL SOLIDARITY 6l 

must spend their lives in the woods, where they have no 
cures to trouble them and no fathers or guardians to constrain 
them ... I cannot tell you, monseigneur, how attractive this 
Indian life is to all our youth. It consists in doing nothing, 
caring nothing, following every inclination, and getting out of 
the way of all correction. 1 

The removal of this young, restless, and radical element 
in the population, while a direct loss economically and so- 
cially to the settled communities and to the Indian settle- 
ments of the Upper country, 2 nevertheless, left in the home 
parish a more fertile soil for the abnormal growth of the 
absolute authority of church and state. These same men 
as coureurs de bois often gave themselves over to lewdness 
and carousing and thus became a double loss to the colony. 

The pressure of pioneer life, in a heavily timbered country 
where money and farm labor were scarce," left little time 
for leisure. The men who resisted the lure of the fur trade 
and remained on the land were " habituated to the incessant 
labor of a rude and unskilled agriculture," 4 where many 
fields had still to be hewn out of the fore9t. The women, 
too, because of early marriage and proverbially large fami- 

1 Cited by Parkman, Old Regime, vol. ii, pp. 177-178; cf. Gharlevoix, 
vol. v, p. 286. 

* " For it is evident that the latter method serves but to depopulate 
the country of all its young men; to reduce the number of people in 
the houses ; to deprive wives of their husbands, fathers and mothers 
of the aid of their children, and sisters of that of their brothers ; to 
expose those who undertake such journeys to a thousand dangers for 
both their bodies and their souls . . . which, if viewed in the proper 
light, caused more loss than profit to the country, because, at the same 
time when it acquires some beaver skins for the Colony, it deprives it 
forever of the labor of all the young men, by accustoming them to be 
unable and unwilling to do any more work." {Rcl. i6g6-ij02, vol. lxv, 
pp. 219-221.) 

s Colon. Dots. N. Y., vol. ix, pp. 151, 398. 

4 Durham, p. 16. 



62 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [62 

lies, as well as their activities both in the house and out, 
had little time for anything except the more elemental things 
of life. 1 

Under these conditions, there was little opportunity for 
developing new interests among the habitants. The ab- 
sence of other interests undoubtedly had a large part in 
giving the church such a large place in the life of the 
French Canadians. Of community organizations there were 
none. Political associations, secret societies and labor 
unions had no place in the life of the French Canadian. 
The St. Jean-Baptiste society, which in recent years under 
the guise of religion has become such a strong political 
organization, did not exist. Thus during our period, the 
church was completely free from competing organizations, 
unless the militia may be so classed. 2 The public and high 
schools which to-day, in many agricultural districts, share 
the community leadership, were in Quebec mere agencies 
of the church. 8 

The social solidarity already attributed in large part to 

1 " In their knowledge of economy they greatly surpass the English 
women in the plantations, who indeed have taken the liberty of throw- 
ing all the burthen of housekeeping upon their husbands, and sit in 
their chairs all day with folded arms. The women in Canada, on the 
contrary, do not spare themselves, especially among the common people, 
where they are always in the fields, meadows, stables, &c, and do not 
dislike any work whatsoever. . . . And I have with pleasure seen the 
daughters of the better sort of people, and of the governor himself, not 
too finely dressed, and going into the kitchen and cellars, to look that 
everything be done as it ought." (Kalm, Travels in North America, 
vol. iii, pp. 56-57-) 

2 " The Canadians are formed into a militia, for the better regulation 
of which, each parish in proportion to its extent and number of in- 
habitants, is divided into one, two, or more companies, who have their 
proper officers, captains, lieutenants, ensigns, majors, aide-majors, ser- 
geants, &c, and all orders or public regulations are addressed to the 
captains or commanding officers, who are to see the same put into 
execution." (Report of General Murray, Const. Docs., vol. i. p. 41.) 

3 Infra, pp. 82-94. 



63] SOCIAL AND MORAL SOLIDARITY 63 

the homogeneity of population which resulted from situ- 
ation and various artificial features, was further due to the 
fact that the sources of subsistence were relatively uniform. 
Little diversity of occupation was possible. The vast ma- 
jority of the people were thus subjected to relatively simple 
and uniform stimuli in the process of exploiting their en- 
vironment and gaining a living. Continued like-response 
to such common stimuli, is of course the most important, if 
not the only means of developing social solidarity. 1 In this 
process of repeated common stimulation the parish church 
was the centre, social, political and religious. The social 
intercourse and enjoyment centering around the church on 
Sunday, as well as on the numerous church holidays, was 
a strong feature in the life of the community.- Community 
leadership also very largely was to be found in the church 
The priest's voice had the strongest note of authority then 
as now in the community. In fact the parish church was 
the embodiment of community solidarity. 3 

The characteristics of the French Canadians during our 

1 Franklin H. Giddings, Inductive Sociology, pp. 57, 60-68; Histor- 
ical and Descriptive Sociology, pp. 124-125, 128 et seq., 311-312. 

2 " In Canada . . . many of the people's enjoyments are connected 
with their religious ceremonies ; the Sunday is to them their day of 
gaiety; there is then an assemblage of friends and relatives; the parish 
church collects together all whom they know, with whom they have 
relations of business and pleasure; the young and old, men and women, 
clad in their best garments, riding their best horses, driving in their 
best caliches, meet there for purposes of business, love and pleasure. 
... In short, Sunday is the grand fete, it forms the most pleasurable 
part of the habitant's life; rob them of their Sunday, you rob them of 
what, in their eyes, renders life most worthy of possession." (A Pol. 
and Hist. Account of L. C, pp. 120-121.) 

3 " It has been rightly observed that the religious observances of the 
French Canadians are so intermingled with all their business and all 
their amusements that the priest and the church are with them, more 
than with any other people, the centres of their little communities." 
(Durham, op. cit., p. 98.) 



64 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [64 

period also made them readily subject to ecclesiastical con- 
trol. The prevailing type of character was forceful and 
convivial. 1 The first of these qualities is seen in the eager- 
ness with which the habitants advanced further and further 
out on the frontier, willingly facing the dangers incident to 
pioneer life in a new country, 2 in the zest with which the 
young men sought the free, reckless life of the coureurs de 
bois, penetrating far into the interior, 3 and in their hardi- 
hood and daring in battle such that it was said of them that 
they " are brave, well disciplined and indefatigable on the 
march." 4 M. de Vaudreuil in his letter to M. de Massiac 
wrote, in regard to the Canadians then fighting in the 
king's troops, 

They have rendered the greatest services; — they clearly per- 
ceive the importance made of them each time they are 
wanted. They bear without a murmur the corvees with which 
they are continually burthened. They ask nothing better than 
to be placed in the most exposed situations, either in encamp- 
ment scouting parties, and even in front of the enemy. They 
distinguished themselves on the day of the 8th. 5 

Their conviviality is shown in a love for social inter- 
course and amusement. Driving and visiting, attending 
parties and dances, smoking and public drinking, were 
among the more popular diversions, especially during the 
fong winter season. Charlevoix writes, 

Everybody does his part to make the time pass pleasantly, with 

1 Giddings, Inductive Sociology, pp. 82-83; Historical and Descriptive 
Sociology, pp. 214-229, 233-236. 

2 Cf. supra, pp. 17-18. 

3 Cf. supra, p. 55. 

* Colon. Docs. N. ¥., vol. ix, p. 725. 

5 Ibid., vol. x, p. 780; cf. ibid., pp. 1000-1001, 1039, 1076, 1083. This 
statement of Vaudreuil's is at least open to question, for Montcalm 
complained that the French Canadian militia " know neither discipline 
or subordination" (Parkman, Montcalm and Wolfe, vol. ii, p. 152; cf. 
pp. 148-158). 



6^] SOCIAL AND MORAL SOLIDARITY 65 

games and parties of pleasure, — drives and canoe excursions 
in summer, sleighing and skating in winter. There is a great 
deal of hunting and shooting for many Canadian gentlemen 
are almost destitute of any other means of living at their 
ease. 1 

Another keen observer in describing the amusements of 
the people about a century later writes as follows, 

The chief pleasures of the inhabitants consist at this time 
[winter] in carioling and visiting each other. Churchgoing, 
visiting, purchasing, in short every journey, whether of pleas- 
ure or business is performed in the cariole. . . . Not only is 
there a cessation from the labor but a constant round of parties 
and dancing of which the whole people are passionately fond. 
. . . The people assemble not merely to see one another, but 
with a serious intention of enjoying themselves . . . they dance 
with spirit and eat with vigor. ... At their weddings the 
same custom prevails ; a dance and a feasting always succeed 
this happy event. 2 

Smoking and drinking were very common. Kalm says, 
with regard to smoking and the use of snuff, 

Every farmer plants a quantity of tobacco near his house, 
in proportion to the size of his family. It is likewise very 
necessary that they should plant tobacco, because it is uni- 
versally smoked by the common people. Boys often of twelve 
years of age, run about with the pipe in their mouths, as well as 
the old people. . . . People of both sexes, and of all ranks, 
use snuff very much. 3 

The drink habit from a very early period wrought havoc 

1 Charlevoix, cited by Parkman, Old Regime, vol. ii, p. IQ5; cf. Mem- 
oires sur le Canada, p. 208. 

2 A Pol. and Hist. Account of L. C, pp. I33-I34- 
Kalm, op. cit., vol. viii, pp. 253-254. 



66 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [66 

not only among the Indians but the colonists as well. 1 
Denonville and Champigny, in a letter to the Minister on 
the evils of the brandy traffic point out that 

The Canadians also ruin their health thereby, and as the greater 
number of them drink a large quantity of it [brandy] early 
in the morning, they are incapable of doing anything the re- 
mainder of the day ... so that it is considered absolutely 
necessary to find means to diminish its use among the 
Canadians. . . . 2 

A contemporary well described this prevalent type of 
character : " The Canadians are . . . robust, vigorous, and 
accustomed in time of need to live on little. They have in- 
telligence and vivacity, but are wayward, light-minded, and 
inclined to debauchery ". 3 

Their apparent light-hearted indifference to the future, 
coupled with a love of ostentation and display, occasioned 
much extravagance among the people, especially the noblesse 
and bourgeoisie, which often brought them to the verge of 
bankruptcy. Charlevoix contrasts this trait of the Canadian 
with that of the colonists of New England. 

One finds here no rich persons whatever, and this is a great 
pity ; for the Canadians like to get the credit of their money, 

1 Mandements des Eveques de Quebec, vol. i, p. 352; Jugements et 
Del., vol. i, pp. 77-78; Duchcsneau au Ministre, 10 Nov., 1679, cited by 
Parkman, op. cit., vol. viii, p. 183; C. G., xii, et seq., 382, 384, cited by 
Eastman, op. cit., p. 275. 

' Denonville and Champigny to the Minister, 1688, Colon. Docs., vol. 
ix, p. 398. " Public drinking must have been very common, for Denon- 
ville complained to the king that there were no end of wine shops. 
The king in consequence ordered that the number be reduced. In 1725 
the number was fixed at two for each parish." (Gosselin, Henri de 
Bernieres, p. 119.) 

3 Memoire Addresse au Regent, cited by Parkman, op. cit., vol. viii, 
p. 181 ; cf. Colon. Docs. N. Y., vol. ix, p. 273. 



67] SOCIAL AND MORAL SOLIDARITY 67 

and scarcely anybody amuses himself with hoarding it. They 
say it is very different with our neighbors the English ; and 
one who knew the two colonies by the way of living, acting, 
and speaking of the colonists would not hesitate to judge ours 
the more flourishing. ... In New France poverty is hidden 
under an air of ease which appears entirely natural. . . . The 
French colonist enjoys what he has got, and often makes a 
display of what he has not got. 1 

Duchesneau, the Intcndant, states that " all except five or 
six of the merchants and a small number of artisans are 
plunged in poverty because the vanity of the women and 
the debauchery of the men consume all their gains ". 2 

Kalm, seventy years later, appears to have been of much 
the same opinion, for he says, " The Frenchmen who con- 
sidered things in their true light, complained very much that 
a great part of the ladies in Canada had got into the per- 
nicious custom of taking too much care of their dress, and 
squandering all their fortunes, and more, upon it, instead 
of sparing something for future times." 3 

It is true that there were many of the austere type * 
among the clergy and religious orders, as well as among 
the faithful of the laity; still, the mass of the people, al- 
though devoutly religious, 5 belonged to the forceful and 

1 Charlevoix, cited by Parkman, Old Regime, vol. ii, p. 195. 

2 Duchesneau au Ministre, 10 Nov., 1679, cited by Parkman, vol. viii, 
p. 183. 3 Kalm, op. cit., vol. iii, p. 281. 

* Giddings, hid. Soc, p. 83; cf. ibid., Hist, and Desc. Soc, pp. 230-231, 
234. 236. 

6 " The French, in their colonies, spend much more time in prayer 
and external worship than the English and Dutch settlers in the British 
colonies. . . . The French here have prayers every morning and night 
on board their shipping, and on Sundays they pray more than com- 
monly; they regularly say grace at their meals; and every one of them 
says prayers in private as soon as he gets up. At Fort St. Frederic all 
the soldiers assembled together for morning and evening prayers." 
(Kalm, vol. iii, pp. 43-44; cf. Const. Docs., vol. i, p. 53; Stillman, 
Remarks on Quebec, p. 386.) 



68 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [68 

convivial groups; and any austerity of life which they 
assumed was very largely the result of isolation and the 
rigorous discipline of the church. This is very vividly 
brought out by Le Jeune when he writes : 

I have here a request to make of all those who wish to express 
an opinion of the condition of our colony, — to close their eyes 
while the ships are at anchor in our ports, and to open them 
at their departure, or shortly afterwards, to the agreeable sight 
of our countrymen. They wish to make merry and they fall 
into excesses; their good habits grow drowsy, and vice begins 
to raise its head ; there is a greater indulgence in drink and 
feasting during that time than in all the rest of the year. . . . 
But when the fleet has departed, when visits come to an end, 
when the winter begins to rally us, how they lend ear to the 
word of God, and how those who have taken too much liberty 
recognize their shortcomings ! Then those who thought that 
lawlessness reigned in our colony joyfully praise the piety and 
devotion thereof . . . x 

Although given to ostentation and display, and fond of 
honors and attentions, 2 they " were not wanting in many of 
the virtues of a simple and industrious life or those which 
common consent attributes to the nation from which they 
had sprung ". 3 While generally acknowledged to be litigi- 
ous, 4 they were little given to offences against property, 

1 Rel. 1636-1637, vol. xi, p. 73. 
* Munro, Docs. S. T., p. xci. 

3 Durham, op. cit., p. 17. Cf. " Though not slothful in business, they 
sought mainly to serve themselves, whom they esteemed the salt of the 
earth — a truculent conceit which was not, the intendant [Hocquart] 
thought, a useful handmaid to industrial, commercial or agricultural 
progress. Their enforced idleness in the long winter period was also, 
in his opinion, somewhat detrimental to industrious habits, especially 
since by nature they loved the chase and the roving life in general." 
(Munro, op. cit., pp. xci-xcii.) 

4 Charlevoix, op. cit., vol. iii, p. 190; A Pol. and Hist. Account of 
L. C, p. 140. 



69] SOCIAL AND MORAL SOLIDARITY 69 

or violence against the person ; 1 rather, although naturally 
independent and self-assertive, were they held by common 
consent to be kindly and hospitable, virtuous and honest. 2 

They were largely of the ideo-emotional type of mind 
and less dogmatic-emotional than their descendants of 
to-day. 3 Cheerful and good-humored, they were distin- 
guished for courtesy and politeness, and while not as lively 
and vivacious as their French ancestors, yet they were by 
no means dull. 4 Swayed largely by feeling, and under the 
control of the unquestioned authority of the church and 
state, reason had very little opportunity to assert itself. 
As they were shut off for most of the year from the outside 
world, conservatism and traditionalism prevailed. 5 " They 
clung to ancient prejudices, ancient customs, and ancient 
laws, not from any strong sense of their beneficial effects, 
but with the unreasoning tenacity of an uneducated and 
unprogressive people." 6 

It is very clear that traits of the sort described in the 

1 Charlevoix, op. cit., vol. Hi, p. 190; The Canadian French, Massa- 
chusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor, 1882, p. 65. 

* Revolutionary Letters, p. 31; cf. Const. Docs., vol. i, p. 60; Mass. 
B. of L., p. 52. 

s Giddings, Ind. Soc, pp. 84-87; cf. ibid., Hist, and Disc. Soc, pp. 
236-240. 

4 "A more good-humoured people than the latter (French Canadian) 
can hardly be found; but the sparkling vivacity, the vehemence of 
temper, the tiger-like passion and the brilliant fiery wit of a Frenchman 
are not to be found among them." (A Pol. and Hist. Account of L. C, 
p. 141.) Cf. " Notwithstanding their poverty, they are always cheerful 
and in high spirits." (Kalm, vol. iii, p. 192.) Cf. "They will be out 
of doors talking and singing between themselves. They are just like 
the French in the Canadian villages. They like to sing, and they are a 
little noisy, but always friendly. . . ." (Mass. B. of L., 1882, p. 54.) 

5 " The news of the day amounts to very little indeed, as the country 
furnishes scarcely any, while that from Europe comes all at once." 
(Charlevoix, cited by Parkman, vol. viii, p. 195.) 

c Durham, op. cit. p. 17. 



70 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [70 

foregoing pages were such as to render the population as a 
whole readily amenable to ecclesiastical control. It is in 
the sphere of religion, however, that the greatest degree of 
homogeneity among the French Canadians was exhibited. 
The policy begun under Richelieu of a rigorous exclusion 
of Protestants, although it robbed the church of the stimu- 
lus which comes through criticism and the fear of prosely- 
tizing, had, nevertheless, been of primary importance for 
unity of faith and practice. Everywhere throughout New 
France there was uniformity of worship. There was one 
church and one religious leadership, under the supervision 
of a watchful bishop. The attendance at church represented 
the whole community as most of the people were to be 
found at the services. The presence, from almost the be- 
ginning, of a strong and relatively large group of clergy in 
the colony, backed by a highly organized church with rather 
liberal financial support, and in control of all education, 
gave to the church, in Quebec, stability and prestige; and 
at the same time, enabled it not only to maintain the ordi- 
nances of religion with dignity and fitting solemnity in the 
older parishes, but also to follow the people into the newer 
settlements and thus retain them within the fold. 

The rigorous exclusion of Protestants from New France 
merely reflected the attitude of Roman Catholicism to Prot- 
estantism during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 
" Excessive intolerance was inwrought in the moral sanc- 
tions of the period 'V In no other country except The 
Netherlands was the struggle more bitter than in France. 

From the beginning of French colonization in Canada, 
the evangelization of the natives was held to be the exclu- 
sive field of Roman Catholic missions. The Protestants 
seem to have accepted this situation, for De Monts, al- 

1 Reyss, £tude sur quelques points de I'histoire de la tolerance au 
Canada et aux Antilles, p. 8. 



yi ] SOCIAL AND MORAL SOLIDARITY 7 1 

though a Huguenot, 1 requested the blessing of the pope on 
the mission among the natives. 2 

Among the early traders in New France the greater num- 
ber were Huguenots, who while enjoying their trading 
privileges under a Roman Catholic government, were never- 
theless strongly Protestant in their sympathies. Beneath 
the surface there was much the same bitterness as between 
the members of the two faiths in France. 3 

Notwithstanding the strong religious prejudices, how- 
ever, the authorities of the earlier days appear to have car- 
ried out the spirit of the Edict of Nantes of 1598. De 
Monts, for example, provided both Protestant ministers 
and Roman Catholic priests; * and it is said that in 1603 he 
openly granted liberty of conscience to the Huguenots of 
his party. 5 

A like measure of religious tolerance was enjoyed for a 
time on the St. Lawrence. 6 Protestant traders early had 
found their way up the river. 7 In 1621 a strong company 
was organized and placed under the control of Guillaume 

1 Champlain's Voyages, The Publications of the Prince Society, vol. 
>. P- 35- 

1 " Inasmuch as his chief object is to establish the Christian religion 
in the land which his Majesty has been pleased to grant him and to 
lead to that faith the poor savage folk ... he thought fit to ask the 
blessing of the Pope of Rome ... by a formal letter." (Marc Les- 
carbot, History of New France, The Publications of the Champlain 
Society, vol. ii, p. 368.) 

* Lescarbot relates that, when a young churchman was lost in the 
woods, " already they accused a certain man of the so-called Reformed 
religion of having murdered him, for they had more than one quarrel 
over the said religion." (Ibid., vol. ii, p. 233.) 

4 Ibid., vol. ii, p. 287. 

8 Brasseur de Bourbourg, Ilistoire du Canada, de son eglise et ses 
missions, p. 24. 

8 Salone, La Colonisation de la Nouvelle-France, p. 43. 
7 Can. and its Prov., vol. ii, New France ii, pp. 450-451. 



72 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [y 2 

and Emery de Caen, two Protestant merchants of Rouen. 1 
The religious influence of this company was soon viewed 
with apprehension by the Roman Catholic Fathers in the 
colony. 2 On the ground that this company had not fulfilled 
its charter obligations as regards colonization, a new com- 
pany was formed, called the company of One Hundred 
Associates. This company, on the one hand, agreed to settle 
in the colony some sixteen thousand native-born French 
Catholics between the years 1628 and 1643, and, on the 
other hand, promised that care would be taken that no for- 
eigner or heretic entered the country. 3 

In France, Richelieu's administration was beginning to 
give renewed unity and strength to the state. His policy 
aimed at the humiliation of the nobles, the overthrow of the 
Huguenots, and the restoration of the prestige of France. 
To achieve this end, he says, " I promised your Majesty to 
employ all my ability, and all the authority it should please 
you to delegate to me, in ruining the Huguenot party, in 
lowering the pride of the nobles, and in restoring your name 
to the position it should occupy among foreign nations." 4 

1 Can. and its Prov., vol. ii, New France ii, p. 451. 

2 " The Jesuits . . . soon realized that a colony founded for the 
spread of the Catholic religion could never prosper so long as it was 
at the mercy of a company managed by Calvinists seeking nothing but 
commercial gain." {Ibid., p. 398.) 

3 Edits et Ord. (1803), vol. i, pp. 2-3; cf. also Charlevoix, vol. ii, 

pp. 38-39. 

". . . . Without it being permitted to the said associates and others 
to send any foreigner to the said places, thus to populate the said 
colony with native French Catholics, and it will be ordered to those 
who command in New France to see to it that the present article is 
executed exactly according to its form and tenor, not suffering that it 
should be infringed upon for any cause or occasion whatsoever under 
pain of personal responsibility." (An Act establishing the Company of 
One Hundred Associates, April 29th, 1627, Edits and Ord., vol. i, art. 
ii, p. 3-) 

* Duruy, History of France, p. 392. 



73] SOCIAL AND MORAL SOLIDARITY 73 

The exclusion of the Huguenots under the charter of 
the Company of One Hundred Associates, already men- 
tioned, merely extended this avowed policy of Richelieu to 
Canada. The various explanations given — such as the ex- 
istence at the court of a strong suspicion that the Calvinists 
had been guilty of an intrigue with the English against 
Canada, 1 or, again, Richelieu's determination that the awful 
struggle then going on before La Rochelle should be made 
forever impossible in the colony. 2 Such explanations, if 
true, only strengthen the conviction that the Protestants 
were excluded from New France as part of the great Car- 
dinal's national policy. 

The edict forbidding, under penalty, the admission of 
Protestants was, for a time, at least, strictly observed, and, 
in cases where Protestants were found living in Canada, 
severe pressure was brought to bear by the authorities to 
induce them to recant. Le Mercier's Journal of September 
14, 1664, records with much satisfaction that more than 
twenty heretics had been converted. 3 Evidently there were 
other Protestants in the colony with whom their efforts to 
proselytize were less successful, for in the same year his 
Majesty was petitioned, 

to select them from the Isle de France, Normandy, Picardy and 
to send over to New France families to settle the country, and 
the neighboring provinces, as the people there were, it was 
said, laborious, industrious, full of religious feeling, while 
the provinces near the seaports, where the shipments were 

1 Charlevoix, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 67. 
1 Salone, op. cit., p. 45. 

s ReL vol. 1, p. 85. 

" His Majesty is glad to learn that there are no Protestants in Canada 
and that the soldiers who were still of the P. R. R. [Pretended Re- 
formed Religion] have been converted." (Colon. Do£S. X. )'., vol. ix, 
p. 312; cf. C. A., B. 74, pt. i, p. 50.) 



74 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [74 

made, contained many heretics, and a population less adapted 
to agriculture. 1 

In order that the Protestant traders who visited the St. 
Lawrence might not undermine the faith of their Roman 
Catholic brethren, they were prohibited from spending the 
winter in Canada. 2 Soldiers and workmen engaged in the 
king's service, however, were exempt from this restriction. 3 

Bishop Laval, in a memorial of 1670, urged that the 
French merchants should be prohibited from sending out 
Protestant clerks. He accused the clerks not only of hold- 
ing religious meetings of their own, but of unsettling the 
faith of some Roman Catholics, both by their conversations 
and their habits of lending heretical books. The bishop 
further pointed out the danger of allowing the Protestants 
to increase in the colony, on the ground that they were 

1 Charlevoix, op. cit., vol. iii, p. 81. 

2 Salone, op. cit., p. 44. 

3 " This Wednesday, the twentieth of August, 1664: — The Council 
having met, there being present the Bishop, Messrs. de la Ferte and 
d'Auteuil, together with the Procureur-General of the King: 

" Touching the petition presented by Moise Hilleret and Daniel Beau, 
ship-carpenters, setting forth that their year of engagement had ex- 
pired by the twenty-eighth of May last; and, furthermore, that they 
can not remain any longer in this country, unless the affairs of the 
King detain them here, inasmuch as they are of the so-called Reformed 
religion; [and asking] that they should be allowed to return to France 
this year; and that they may be paid for the three months of service 
which they have given over and above their year; and that their pas- 
sage homeward be paid on their behalf; 

" Having heard upon this matter the recommendations of the Pro- 
cureur-General, to the effect that the decree of the King's Council of 
State be carried out; and that, inasmuch as the year of the Petitioners 
has expired, they be sent back to France; 

" The Council, in rendering judgment, has granted to the Petitioners 
the object of their requests for the purpose of their return; and has 
furthermore ordered that the same be put into effect at the earliest date." 
(Jugements et Del., vol. i, pp. 262-263.) 



75] SOCIAL AND MORAL SOLIDARITY 75 

known to be less loyal than Roman Catholics, and their 
proximity to the English colonists would eventually lead 
to political discord. 1 

Despite, however, the watchful eye of the church, sup- 
ported by the arm of the state, from time to time Protes- 
tants found their way into the colony. In reply to a request 
asking for the expulsion of the Protestants then resident 
in the colony, Beauharnois and Hocquart were informed 
in 1742 that " His Majesty is not willing to send back to' 
France the individuals of the so-called Reformed religion 
who are in Canada, on the ground of what you write about 
their good conduct, but if later on something should happen 
on their part contrary to good order, it would be necessary 
to provide for it. You will take care to watch them." 2 

1 " The Bishop of Quebec represents that the French merchants are 
sending out Protestant clerks (commis) and that for some time past 
the clergy have been pointing out the disadvantages [of this practice] 
with respect both to religion and to the State. 

" As regards religion, the Bishop of Quebec affirms that they use 
much seductive language ; that they lend books, and that, at times, they 
have even held meetings together ; and that, finally, he has knowledge 
that many persons speak highly of them, and are unable to believe that 
they [the Protestants] are in error. 

" When this matter is examined in its relation to the State, it is evi- 
dent that its importance is equally great [there]. It is common knowl- 
edge that the Protestants in general are not as attached to His Majesty 
as are the Catholics. 

" Quebec is not very far removed from Boston and other English 
towns, and to multiply the Protestants in Canada would be to provide 
a future cause of disorder. Those who are here have not appeared to 
show an especially sympathetic interest in the success of His Majesty's 
arms ; and they have been observed to show some eagerness in spread- 
ing abroad the news of all the trifling reverses which have occurred. 

" An order forbidding French merchants to send over Protestant 
clerks will be sufficient to put an end to this abuse." (Memoirs of the 
Bishop of Quebec regarding Protestants, 1670, Collection de Manuscrits 
. . . (de) la Nouvelle -France, vol. i, pp. 204-205.) 

* C. A., B, vol. 74, pt. i, p. 250. 



76 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [76 

Evidently, nothing did happen contrary to good order, 
for when the country passed into the hands of the British, 
seventeen years later, there were some few still living in 
Canada who had been able to withstand the opposition of 
the Catholic church. 1 General Murray took a deep interest 
in these, maintaining that if the government were to pro- 
vide a church and minister for them, they might be able to 
induce many of their persecuted brethren in France to emi- 
grate to Canada. In this way, he believed, the government 
might build up a strong Huguenot community which would 
tend to lessen the prejudice of the people against the Prot- 
estant faith. 2 

It is clear, however, that the few Protestants who found 
their way into New France, from time to time, never were 
in a position either politically or numerically to organize in 
any way for purposes of religious worship. Catholicism 
was not only master of the religious field, but had it com- 
pletely to itself. Uniformity of worship prevailed in all 
the parishes, and, except in a few of the larger centres, all 
the people worshiped in the same church. 

The clergy, when compared with the conditions prevail- 
ing where Catholicism and Protestantism exist side by side, 
presented an undivided leadership. Divisions and jeal- 
ousies seem to have been common among the religious 
orders. The Jesuits, although coming to Canada at the in- 
vitation of the Recollets, had no sooner landed than they 
began to usurp the place so worthily held by their brothers 
of the Order of St. Francis. The warning which Le Clercq 
says had reached the ears of the Recollets, that the Jesuits 

1 Maseres' statement that " there were only three Protestant fami- 
lies " among the French Canadians at the time of the conquest seems 
doubtful. Cf. Const. Docs., vol. i, p. 179. 

* General Murray's report on the state of the government of Quebec, 
June 5th, 1762. Const. Docs. vol. i, p. 54. 



77] SOCIAL AND MORAL SOLIDARITY yy 

would not be satisfied until they were first, was soon shown 
to be true. In a brief time they had supplanted the Recol- 
Irts, 1 and were in a position to dominate the policy of the 
church in New France. Under Laval the religious leader- 
ship was still further unified ; in the first place through oust- 
ing the appointee of the Archbishop of Rouen, the Sulpi- 
cian vicar-general Oueylus, and in the second place, by 
bringing about the erection of the bishopric of Quebec di- 
rectly subject to the See of Rome. 

The religious leadership in New France was not only 
strongly centralized, but was also of such a character and 
strength as to meet adequately the needs of the colony. Its 
members, as represented both by the religious orders of 
Rccollets, Jesuits, and Sulpicians, and by individuals such 
as Caron, Lalemont, Queylus, and Laval, were not only 
austere and persevering, but at the same time able and de- 
voted. 2 

Laval, although undoubtedly the ablest, was nevertheless 
typical of that group of austere and persevering church- 
men who laid the foundations of Catholicism in New- 
France. He had received his training in the colleges of La 
Fleche and Clermont, both under the direction of the 
Jesuits. 3 After leaving the college he spent four years in 
the Hermitage at Caen, under one Berniers, a zealous sup- 
porter of the ultramontane teachings of the Jesuits in their 
struggle against the Jansenist doctrines. This band of 
zealots held it as as their duty to be the guardians of sound 
doctrine, and to this end watched every pulpit in the city 
for signs of Jansenism. Austere in their habits of life, 

1 Kingsford, William, History of Canada, vol. i, p. 122 et seq. 

* Parkman, The Jesuits in North America, vol. i, p. 131. 

3 Leblond de Brumath, Bishop Laval, The Makers of Canada, p. 19; 
cf. also Can. and its Prov., vol. ii, X. F. ii, p. 418. 



yg ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [78 

they were exceedingly dogmatic in their religious teach- 
ing. 1 It was in this atmosphere of asceticism and mysti- 
cism, of annihilation of self and absorption in God, that 
the character of Laval was moulded. 2 

From almost the very beginning of the colony, liberal 
provision was made for the spiritual oversight of the French 
and the Indians. From four ecclesiastics in 161 5, the num- 
ber had been increased to twenty-nine in 1640, not includ- 
ing the six nuns who were at work in Quebec. In 1650, the 
Jesuits alone numbered forty with a like number of ser- 
vants. 3 The clergy had increased to fifty-one in 1665, and 
comprised one bishop, eighteen priests and ecclesiastics, and 
thirty-one Jesuit priests and brethren, while the nuns num- 
bered forty-six, including nineteen Ursnlines, twenty-three 
of the Hospitaller order, and four Mies pieuses of the con- 
gregation. 4 In 1685 the number classed as ecclesiastical 
persons was 179, and they included the bishop, thirty-six 
priests, and fourteen other ecclesiastics, forty-three Jesuits, 
eleven Recollcts, twenty-eight Ursulines, thirty-six hospital 
sisters, and ten other women who had taken a religious 
vow. 5 In the same year the total Indian and French popu- 
lation was given as 12,263, of whom 1,538 were Christian 
Indians settled in villages, and 10,725 were French or 
Canadian-born whites. 6 Exactly what proportion of these 
ecclesiastical persons ministered to this resident ^Indian and 
French population is not easily ascertained, since a con- 
siderable number were engaged in the Indian missions be- 
yond. 

1 Parkman, Old Regime, p. 88 et seq. 

i Ibid., p. 167. 

8 Suite, R. S. C. Trans., 1905, sec. ii, p. 112. 

* Census 1665. 

* Mcmoires sur le Canada, p. 167. 
' Census 1685. 



79] SOCIAL AND MORAL SOLIDARITY 79 

When wc come to consider the rural parishes, we find 
that there was one parish to every 220, or less, of the rural 
population, for we know that there were forty rural par- 
ishes, each having a cure, and that the total rural population 
was 8,796. 1 The total Indian and white population was 
even smaller, having one cure to every 166 persons. In 
1 7 19, with a population of 22,530, there were 333 ecclesias- 
tical persons, including sixteen Jesuits, twelve Rccollcts, 
fifty-one parish priests, and eighteen priests in the semi- 
naries, fifty Ursulines, 106 Hospitallers, sixty-eight nuns 
of the congregation, and twelve from the General Hospital. 2 
In 1754, there were 380 ecclesiastical persons ministering 
to a population of 55,009; 155 of whom were male, and 
255 female. The number of priests in the rural parishes 
had increased to ninety-one; but, as the rural population 
was 42,000, the ratio of priests to population was less than 
half of that in 1681, being one priest to every 463. 3 

Liberal provision also was made in New France for the 
support of the religious institutions. Of the land granted 
by the French king in the colony, 2,043,790 acres were in 
ecclesiastical hands; the Jesuits were the largest holders, 
with 881,695 acres; the Ursulines held 551,712 acres; the 
Sulpicians, 196,367 acres; the Seminary of Quebec, 161,- 
622 acres; and the hospitals and other similar institutions, 
56,925.* The king's gifts in money were equally generous. 
The church in New France received the larger part of the 
funds known as the " ordinary charges " of the colony. 
Out of an appropriation of 36,360 livres for the year 1667, 
28,000 was assigned for religious purposes; the Jesuits re- 

1 Census 168 1. 
1 Census 171 9. 
s Census 1754. 
4 C. A., Q. 56, pt. iii, p. 833. 



80 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [80 

ceiving 6,000 Uvres; the Ursulines, 6,000 livres; the 
cathedral, 9,000; the Seminary, 4,000; and the Hotel-Dieu, 
3,000. In 1689, the total amount had increased to 34,000 
livres, including the sums assigned to Acadia. 1 In a letter 
dated May 5, 1700, from the minister to the bishop, the 
former states that " His Majesty has been pleased to con- 
tinue the fund of 8,000 livres for the support of the cures." 2 
The king evidently considered the money well spent, for 
the minister says, " the report given by them, and by you, 
of the number of the cures who have been more permanent, 
and of the good use made of this sum last year, has induced 
him to continue the fund." The king, however, did not 
intend this grant to be more than temporary. He still 
hoped " that, as soon as the land has again become pro- 
ductive, as in the past, and when more of it is brought 
under cultivation, the tithes will be sufficient to support 
them," and in order to bring this about as soon as possible, 
he instructed two of his officers " to devise with you [the 
bishop] means to place the tithes in a condition to support 
the cures in the future." 4 The bishopric of Quebec was 
endowed by him with the revenues of two, and later three, 
French Abbeys. 5 

1 Parkman, Old Regime, p. 336. 

2 The Minister to Bishop of Quebec, 5th May, 1700; C. A., Moreau 
St. Mery, F3, vol. vi, p. 78. 

3 Ibid. 

* Ibid. 

5 Parkman, Old Regime, p. 337. Cf. "And for the suitable support 
of the Bishop of Quebec, while holding office, we do set apart the 
revenue of the Board of the Monastery of the Abbey called de Mille- 
becco (of the Order of Saint Benedict), in the diocese of Bituruca, 
which is wont to be called incommendam, which the said Francis ob- 
tained lately and holds to-day incommendam; and the joint collate, 
title and designation of abbot, with all right of nomination thereto (to 
the abbey), which in virtue of agreements long since made between the 



8i] SOCIAL AND MORAL SOLIDARITY g r 

The king's generosity called forth other large private 
benefactions. Various members of the court, in the few 
years following 1636, contributed more than 75,000 livres. 
Charitable ladies gave largely to the hospital and other 
good works ; Madame Bullion's donations alone amounted 
to 20,000 livres in the year 1646, 1 and altogether to 62,000 
livres. 2 

The revenues derived from the colonists for the main- 
tenance of religious ordinances were, however, less satis- 
factory. The Company of One Hundred Associates, ac- 
cording to their charter, were to provide for the mainten- 
ance of three cures in each of their settlements. 3 After the 

said Apostolic See and Francis I, of illustrious memory, at one time 
king of the said French, belongs to the aforesaid King Louis, we do, 
with the consent of the aforesaid King Louis, and with reservation to 
our beloved sons, the Prior and Monks of the conventual Board and 
all spiritual jurisdiction within the limits of the said Monastery, sup- 
press and extinguish for ever by the same authority; and with the 
consent of the same King Louis, we do, by our oft-named Apostolic 
authority, for ever assign to, unite with, and incorporate in the same 
church of Quebec and its episcopal Board, the said Monastery, along 
with all its rights, jurisdictions, revenues and emoluments, and we do 
grant and assign to the future Bishop of Quebec himself the aforesaid 
state as his State, and, as his diocese the lands, towns, and places in 
the aforesaid district, as they at present exist for the time being under 
the temporal dominion of the said King Louis, to be now subject to the 
spiritual jurisdiction of no other bishop — according to the boundaries 
to be marked by the same King Louis and approved by the aforesaid 
Apostolic See — and the community and people of the City of Quebec 
and of its lands, towns and places, and the communities, residents and 
inhabitants of the said district as his people, and belonging to his dio- 
cese, and their ecclesiastics as his clergy." ("Bull, Erecting the Arch- 
bishopric of Quebec, Mandements, vol. i, p. 82 et seq.) 

1 Memoir es sur le Canada, pp. 138-139. 

2 Charlevoix, op. cxt., vol. iii, p. 27. 

' " In each settlement which shall be established by the said associates, 
in order to look after the conversion of the Indians and the consola- 
tion of the French who will reside in the said New France, there will 



8 2 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [82 

withdrawal of the company's charter in 1663, the Seminary 
of Quebec undertook to furnish cures for the colony, and, 
in return was to receive all the tithes, 1 which were then 
fixed at one-thirteenth. 2 For the next seventy years the 
tithes were a source of controversy and dispute. 

Education, under the French regime, was almost alto- 
gether in the hands of the church. The Jesuits were the 
first to establish a school. Father Le Jeune wrote, in 1635, 

be three ecclesiastics at least whom the said associates will be obliged 
to provide with lodgings, provisions, ornaments, and furnish them gen- 
erally with all things necessary, as well for their living as for the 
functions of their ministry, during the said fifteen years, unless the 
said associates, in order to avoid the said expenses, prefer to distribute 
to the said ecclesiastics cleared lands sufficient for their support. Even 
there will be sent to the said New France a greater number of eccle- 
siastics if need be and if the company deems it advisable either for the 
said settlements or for the missions; the whole at the expense of the 
said associates during the period of the said fifteen years; and those 
being expired, His Majesty will hand over the surplus to the devotion 
and charity as well of those of the said company as of the French who 
will reside there, who will be exhorted to provide abundantly as well 
for the said ecclesiastics as for all others who will go to New France 
in order to work for the salvation of souls." (Edits, et Ord. (1803), 
vol. i, p. 3, art. iii.) 

1 " It is absolutely necessary to provide the said Seminary and clergy 
with a sufficient revenue to meet the outlays and the expenses which it 
will be obliged to make. We have applied and do apply, have affected 
and do affect, from the present and for all time, all tithes of whatever 
nature they may be, and in the way in which they will be levied in all 
parishes and places of the said country, to be held in common and 
administered by the said seminary according to our orders and our 
authority, and of the successor of the bishops of the country, on the 
condition that he will furnish the maintenance of all the ecclesiastics 
who will be assigned to the parishes and other places of the said 
country, and who will always be removable, and subject to the recall at 
the will of the said bishops and seminary by their orders." (Edits et 
Ord. (1803), vol. i, p. 26.) 

J The edict ordered that " the tithes shall be paid on everything pro- 
duced by the labour of man, and on everything which the earth pro- 
duces by the labour of man." (Ibid., p. 314.) 



83] SOCIAL AND MORAL SOLIDARITY 83 

that a building had been erected near the fort, and that the 
children were being instructed. 1 The Rccollets who had 
done some preliminary educational work among the Indians 
before the arrival of the Jesuits, conducted a successful 
school at Quebec, which was said to have had more students 
than that of the Jesuits. 2 The Sulpicians opened a school 
for boys, in 1657, at Montreal." Twenty-one years later, in 
1686, the " Association of the Citizens of Montreal for 
Schools " was formed and placed under the direction of 
this order. Three of the four teachers employed by the 
Association were ecclesiastics. 4 

There were thirty-two primary schools for boys estab- 
lished during the French period in New France, fifteen of 
which were situated in the city and district of Quebec, ten 
in the city and district of Montreal, and seven in the town 
and district of Three Rivers. 5 The education of girls was 
provided by fifteen different institutions; nine of which 
were convents, and six houses of education. The convents 
were to be found in different parts of the country, as well 
as in Montreal and Quebec. Three of the houses of educa- 
tion were in Quebec, one in Montreal, and two in Three 
Rivers. 6 The two leading orders engaged in educational 
work for girls were the Ursulines, and the Sisters of the 
Congregation of Notre-Dame. 7 

The School of Mathematics and Hydrography, founded 
about 1665 at Quebec, was the only one of the fifty-four 

] Gosselin, Amedee E., V Instruction an Canada, pp. 33-34. 

3 Memoires sur le Canada, p. 86. 
8 Gosselin, op. cit., p. 79. 

4 Ibid., p. 82. 

* Ibid., pp. 475-4/6. 

6 Ibid., p. 477. 

7 Ibid., pp. 144-169. 



§4 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [84 

educational institutions not under the direction and control 
of the church. This school was established and maintained 
by the king, and was under the direction of the " master of 
hydrography for the King at Quebec." 1 The Jesuits were 
eager to get control of this school, but, for a time, had to 
content themselves with giving lessons in mathematics. 2 On 
the death of the master of the school, Jolliet, in 1707, the 
Jesuits carried on the work, and in the following year, the 
direction and control of the school, with its revenues, passed 
into their hands. 3 In Montreal they had been able to con- 
trol this branch of education 4 from the very beginning. 

The proportion of the school population reached by these 
various educational institutions seems to have been small; 
although the schools were fairly numerous considering the 
size of the population. The official census of 1685 showed 
that there were 10,725 French and 1,538 Indians in New 
France, not including Acadia. 5 At this date, nineteen edu- 
cational institutions had been established, or one for every 
645 of the population. Very few of these, however, were 
outside of Montreal and Quebec. 6 And in most of these, 
during the seventeenth century, the instruction given was 
very elementary. In a letter to His Majesty, suggesting 
that he make a grant for the support of an instructor in 
geometry, fortification, and geography, it was stated that 
" At Montreal the youth is deprived of all education. The 
children go to the public schools, which are established at 

1 Gosselin, op. cit., pp. 331, 345. 

* Ibid., p. 333. 
s Ibid., p. 337. 

* Ibid., p. 334. 

5 Memoires sur le Canada, p. 167. 

* Gosselin, pp. 475-477 ; Can. and its Prov., vol. xvi, pp. 347, 350. 



8 5 ] SOCIAL AND MORAL SOLIDARITY 85 

the Seminary of St. Snlpice, and with the Brothers Charon, 
where they learn the first elements of grammar only." x 
Social rank does not appear to have made much difference, 
for it was said, " All the education which the children of 
the officers and of the gentry receive is very slight, they 
can hardly read and write. They do not know the primary 
elements of geography and history, and it is much to be 
desired that they have more education." 2 

In the programme of studies for elementary schools, re- 
ligion had the first place. It was considered of the greatest 
importance, and essential as a foundation for all edu- 
cation. 3 

Thus it is seen that in the field of education the church 
was in control of the school, the most powerful instrument 
of standardization ; 4 and that not only was there no 
competition from other religious bodies, but, except for the 
School of Hydrography, all education which consisted of 
religious instruction was absolutely in the hands of the 
church. 

The ability with which the church, under British rule, 
was still able to dominate education, notwithstanding the 
opposition of both the government and the Protestants, 
had an even more significant effect upon the rise of ecclesias- 
tical control. 

This supremacy, after the conquest, seemed in grave 
danger of being assumed by the state and the Church of 
England. By the articles of capitulation, the male teach- 
ing orders, who were in practical control of education, were 
not to be preserved in their constitution and privileges, 

1 Memoires sur le Canada, p. 209. 

2 Ibid., p. 208. 

3 Gosselin, op. cit., p. 227. 

* Can. and its Prov., vol. xvi, Q. ii, pp. 348-350. 



86 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [86 

until the king's pleasure should be known. 1 By the 
Treaty of Paris, in 1763, these restrictions were confirmed, 
their property passed into the hands of the crown, and they 
were forbidden to receive any new members into their 
orders. 2 

The belief, which seems to have been warranted, that 
these estates were to be alienated from the support of edu- 
cation, 3 raised a storm of protest. Petitions signed by both 
the clergy and laity were forwarded to the governor and 
council requesting the continuance of the religious orders, 
and the restoration of their property for educational pur- 
poses. 4 The matter was brought to the attention of the 
Colonial Office, for Hillsborough wrote to Carleton in 
these terms: "Upon this subject I have little else to say 
than that the consideration of what may be finally proper 
and expedient in respect to that is still before his Majesty's 

1 Articles of Capitulation between General Amherst and Marquis de 
Vaudreuil, Annual Register, 1760, art. xxxiii, p. 222. 

2 " You are not to allow the admission of any new members into any 
of the said societies or Communities, the Religious Communities of 
Women only excepted, without Our express orders for that purpose. 
That the society of Jesuits be suppressed and dissolved, and no longer 
continued, as a Body corporate and politic, and all their Rights, Pos- 
sessions and Property shall be vested in Us for such purposes, as We 
may hereafter think fit to direct and appoint; but We think fit to de- 
clare Our Royal Intention to be, that the present members of the said 
Society as established at Quebec shall be allowed sufficient stipends 
and Provisions during their natural lives." (Instructions to Governor 
Carleton, 1775, C. A., Q. 26b, p. 139.) 

5 " Their estate might be put under proper management, and such of 
their lands, which are the very best in the country, as are unconceded. 
might be let to English farmers (encouraged on purpose to introduce 
a better notion of husbandry and to mix with the people) ; the produce 
of the whole to be applied to defray the expenses." (C. A., Q. 1, p. 
253 ; Q- 84, pp. 291-292.) 

*C. A., Q. 6, pp. 115, 117; Q- 7, PP. 368-371; C. A., P. C— H., p. 
449; Q- 35. PP- 66-70, 70-106, 110-116. 



87] SOCIAL AND MORAL SOLIDARITY 87 

Privy Council. . . . My Lord President [of Board of 
Trade] has given reason to believe that it will now im- 
mediately be taken up." x 

Public opinion, both Roman Catholic and Protestant be- 
came strongly averse to any scheme tending to alienate these 
lands from education, either by granting them to Lord Am- 
herst, or having them appropriated for the province. Dor- 
chester wrote to Sydney that, 

In consequence of some steps taken in obedience to His 
Majesty's Order in Council of the 18th August 1786 respect- 
ing the Grant to be made to Lord Amherst of the estates form- 
erly held by the Jesuits in this province, a petition was pre- 
sented by a considerable number of respectable inhabitants, 
accompanied by a memorial setting forth that the greatest part 
of the said estates originated from private donations of in- 
dividuals made for the express purpose of constituting a fund 
for the education of youth under the name of the college of 
Quebec, that the same ought to be considered as the property 
of the public and not to be diverted from that channel, and 
praying that the necessary measures may be taken to apply the 
said estates accordingly for the support of such an institution 
which has long been talked of and is very much wanted in this 
province. . . . The said petition is now under consideration, 
and shall be transmitted to your Lordship by another op- 
portunity. 2 

The Anglican clergy were as eager as their Roman Catholic 
brethren that the Jesuit estates should be used to promote 
education, and addressed a petition to the Bishop of Nova 
Scotia, praying that, since the lands had been granted origi- 
nally for purposes of education and in view of the need, 

1 C. A., Q. 6, p. 121. 

2 Dorchester to Sydney, Dec. 10, 1787; C. A., Q. 35, P- I ', Q- 49, P- M. 



83 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [88 

the property should be used in the widest interests of edu- 
cation in the province. 1 

Considering the backward state of education at this 
period among the masses in England, it was not to be ex- 
pected that the government would be keenly alive to the 
needs of education in Quebec. Such pressure, nevertheless, 
was brought to bear by both old and new subjects that, in 
1786, a committee was appointed by the King's Order in 
Council to investigate and report upon the Jesuits' estates 
in order to enable the governor " to adjust the quantum to 
be reserved for public uses and to determine the parcels 

1 " Right Revd. Sir : 

" We, your clergy of the Province of Quebec, whose names are un- 
derwritten, take the liberty of addressing you on a subject which gives 
the most flattering prospects of general utility to this His Majesty's 
Province. 

" The original grant of what are called the Jesuit lands, being des- 
tined, as we understand, for the education of youth, gives us hopes 
that the intent of the pious donors may not be frustrated, and further 
emboldens us to supplicate His Majesty for the disposal of their lands 
in the behalf of knowledge and literature. 

" We, who from our situation have the best opportunities of being 
acquainted with the real estate of the morals and dispositions of His 
Majesty's subjects in the different parts of this Province, have but too 
great cause to lament the want of a similar institution, and it is not 
for ourselves that we claim an exclusive property in such a blessing, 
but hope that the doors of learning may be open to all, and that the 
good effects of it may be as widely diffused as the religion we profess, 
to all ranks of men of whatever sect and nation of which this province 
is composed. 

We are, Right Revd. Sir, Etc., 

David Francis de Montmollin, 
Philip Toosey, 
Dd. Chd. Delisle, 
John Doty, 
James Tun stall, 
Jno. Stuart, 
John Langhorn, 
L. Veyssiere." 
(C. A., Q. 43, pt. ii, pp. 602-605.) 



Signed. 



goj SOCIAL AND MORAL SOLIDARITY 89 

that might be disposed of . . ." J The report of this com- 
mittee was, however, considered so unsatisfactory by Lord 
Dorchester, that no action was taken, although the appoint- 
ment of the commission in itself indicated clearly that the 
government recognized the justice of their petitioners' 
claim. 2 

The chief difficulty in the way lay not so much in retain- 
ing these estates, for the support of education, as in uniting 
upon a scheme acceptable at once to the two races and the 
two religions. 

There was, on the one hand, no doubt as to the deplorable 
state of education in the province. 3 The male portion of 
the population especially seems to have been sadly ne- 
glected. 4 Hugh Finlay wrote, in 1784, that, 

although the Canadian Peasants are far from being a stupid 
race, they are at present an ignorant people, from want of 
instruction. Not a man in five hundred among them can read ; 
perhaps it has been the Policy of the Clergy to keep them in 
the dark, as it is a favorite tenet with the Roman Catholic 
Priests, that ignorance is the mother of devotion. The fe- 
males in this country have great advantage over the males in 
point of education. The sisters of the congregation, or Grey 
Sisters as they are called, are settled in the Country Parishes 
here and there to teach girls to read, write, sew, and knit 
stockings. 5 

On the other hand, the desire of the government to have 
English become the language of the new subjects, 6 and the 

1 Dorchester to Grenville, C. A., Q. 43, Pt. ", P- 593- 2 Ibid. 

3 C. A., M. 914, p. 199; Q. 43, pt. i, p. 598; M. 128, p. 347; Can. and 
its Prov., vol. xvi, Q. 2, p. 406. 

* C. A., Q. 10, p. 56 et seq. 
» C.A., Q. 23, pp. 441-442. 

• C. A., Q. 84, pp. 188, 293 and 294. 



go ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [go 

fear that the young men, in going to the revolted colonies 
for their classical training, might have their political prin- 
ciples " corrupted "/ resulted in a committee's being ap- 
pointed to consider the whole problem of elementary and 
secondary education. 2 In November, 1789, this committee, 
composed of five Protestants and four Roman Catholics, 
recommended, in a unanimous report, that there should be 
erected parish or village free schools throughout the prov- 
ince, tuition being allowed only for reading, writing, and 
ciphering; that there should be established a free secondary 
school in the central or county town of each district and, 

that it is expedient to erect a collegiate institution, for culti- 
vating the liberal arts and sciences usually taught in European 
universities, the theology of Christians excepted, on account of 
the mixture of the two communions whose joint aid is desir- 
able as far as they agree, and who ought to be left to find a 
separate provision for candidates in the ministry of their re- 
spective churches. That it is essential to the origin and suc- 
cess of such an institution that a society be incorporated for 
the purpose, and that the charter wisely provide against the 
perversion of the institution to any sectarian peculiarities, leav- 
ing free scope for the cultivating of the general circle of the 
sciences. 3 

The report of the committee on education, while unani- 
mous, was largely the product of Bishop Inglis, 4 and there- 

1 C. A., Q. 43, Pt. H, P- 597; Q- 84, p. 186. 

2 Can. and its Prov., vol. xvi, Q. 2, p. 447. 

3 C. A., P. C. — G., p. 243; cf. Can. and its Prov., vol. xvi, Q. 2, p. 447. 
* " I shall only observe further on this head that the report had lain 

dormant since May 31, 1787, when Lord Dorchester had given an order 
on the subject; and would probably have continued so to this time had 
it not been for the exertion and stir I made last summer in this matter. 
I drew up and presented to Lord Dorchester a set of regulations for 
Canadian schools, July 22nd, and held a conference on the subject with 



9 l] SOCIAL AXD MORAL SOLIDARITY g L 

fore represented far more the Protestant than the Roman 
Catholic point of view. It had, however, the result of bring- 
the question of education before the people, and of making 
the Roman Catholic hierarchy declare itself. 

To any one to-day, with even a slight knowledge of the 
history of education in Quebec, the scheme must appear an 
ambitious one, but at no time since does there seem to 
have been an occasion more opportune for a settlement of 
the vexed problem of education in a way that would have 
meant much for the future of Quebec and of Canada. 

Bishop Inglis, himself, was doubtful of its success, for 
in April, 1790, he wrote to Dorchester, " I know it is your 
Lordship's wish to unite the Canadians with the Protestants 
in this design ; and certainly this wish is dictated by benevo- 
lence and good policy — the question is — Can it be effected? 
I very much doubt it, in the present state of things." L 

There were those in both the Protestant and Roman Catho- 
lic ranks who approved of the scheme and were eager to see 
it carried out. 2 All the Protestant clergy seem to have con- 
sidered it a step in the right direction. 3 Although the ex- 
several Canadian Magistrates and gentlemen, August nth. The Legis- 
lative Council met and took some steps in this business the 13th of 
August, which produced this report the November following." (C. A. t 
M. 914, p. 197; ibid., p. 51.) 

1 C. A., M. 914, p. 199. 2 Ibid., p. 198. 

3 C. A., Q. 49, pp. 26-29. Cf. " The Council of Quebec have taken 
so much time to make their report on the means of promoting educa- 
tion, I presume they have maturely weighed every circumstance. The 
plan seems to be very good — the only thing wanted is to realize it. 
In carrying on any measure here, I find that celerity in the execution 
is essential to its success. I am sensible that difficulties occur in Cana -la 
which are not easily surmounted, especially in this matter. . . . The 
guarding so scrupulously against 'the theology of Christians' being 
taught in the future college of Quebec, can proceed only from a jeal- 
ousy that is groundless, and from not knowing the state of the Uni- 
versities in Great Britain and Ireland. Attention to, and progress in, 
the sciences are the only things required in those Universities to qualify 



g 2 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [g 2 

elusion of the teaching of theology seems to have been dis- 
appointing to some, Mr. Bailly, Coadjutor to Bishop 
Hubert, came out strongly in favor of the plan against 
Bishop Hubert and the larger part of the Catholic clergy. 
So bitter was Bailly's criticism of Bishop Hubert's letter 
to the Committee on Education, that Dorchester did not 
think it proper for the government to publish it. 1 

What degree of support the Coadjutor had among the 
Roman Catholic laity seems difficult to ascertain. It must 
have been considerable, for Bishop Inglis, in April, 1790, 
wrote to Dorchester that he had received a letter from Que- 
bec, lamenting "the ignorance and bigotry which prevail and 
are daily gaining ground among the Roman Catholics, and 
the separation which is kept up between them and the Prot- 
estants " and which the author wishes to be removed ; it 
states that those Roman Catholics who possess liberal sen- 
timents are discouraged, and injured, that this is particu- 

the students for academical degrees. Theology is not forced upon any. 
There are, indeed, professors of Divinity; but none attend their Theo- 
logical lectures except such as chuse it. There is no compulsion in the 
case; and it may be well enough to gratify the Canadians in this point." 
(C. A., M. 914, p. 187.) 

1 " The letter of Monsieur Hubert of the 18th November, 1789, to 
the Chairman of the Committee on the subject of education, which was 
printed with their report, has been severely censured by the Coadjutor, 
Mr. Bailly, in a letter to the same Committee, which came too late to 
be inserted in their report, but was brought forward by them in a sub- 
sequent one, advising it to be published in the same manner as that of 
Monsieur Hubert. 

" However, it did not seem decent for the government to become the 
channel of publishing their religious disputes, nor advisable even to 
afford an appearance for the suspicion of a wish to foment them. 

" There is reason to suppose a much wider breach between them 
than could have been occasioned by a mere diversity of sentiment on 
the subject of Education. I have tried to reconcile them, but without 
effect. The clergy in general seem inclined to side with Monsieur 
Hubert." (Dorchester to Grenville, Nov. 10, 1790, C. A., Q. 49, pp. 
24-25J 



9 3] SOCIAL AND MORAL SOLIDARITY 93 

larly the case of Mr. Bailly, the Coadjutor. . . .* The 
writer even proposed, in order to overcome the reactionary- 
attitude of Bishop Hubert, " to divide the Bishopric of Que- 
bec into two Sees ; to place Mr. Bailly immediately in one 
of them ; and a native of His Majesty's European domin- 
ions, a Roman Catholic, in the other." " 

No division of the bishopric was made however. Bishop 
Hubert was not forced to retire. The Roman Catholic 
hierarchy still retained control of education. Both the 
Government and the Church of England realized their de- 
feat. The matter of the Jesuit estates was left in abey- 
ance and the government sought other sources of revenue 
for the support of free schools. 3 

Bishop Hubert's attitude became the settled policy of the 
hierarchy. Notwithstanding the attempt of the Royal In- 
stitution for the Advancement of Learning of 1801 which 
made provision that the school should be " under the imme- 
diate inspection of the clergy of that religion which is pos- 
sessed by the inhabitants of the spot — or where the inhabi- 
tants are of a mixed description, the clergy of each church 

1 C. A., M. 914, p. 199. J Ibid. 

3 " The public having, according to the Tenor of your Grace's Dis- 
patch No. 7 of the 12th of July last, been informed by my speech to 
both Houses of the Legislature that His Majesty has been graciously 
pleased to give directions for the establishing of a competent number 
of Free Schools, which has had the happiest effect in setting aside all 
reference to the Jesuits' Estates. 

" The House of Assembly, so far from hinting at the subject of those 
. . . Estates either in their address or since, are now preparing a Bill 
for the purpose of seconding the beneficent views of His Majesty by 
erecting School Houses in the different parishes to be under the Con- 
trol of the Executive Government; and should the Roman Catholic 
Clergy not use their influence in opposition to the measure, it will 
probably be adopted; but they seem to have hitherto discouraged the 
introduction of learning into the Province." Milne to Portland, Feb., 
1801. (C. A.. Q. 84, pp. 272-273. 292-294; cf. Q. 85, pp. 376. 243; Q. 86, 
pt. i. p. 06; Q. 86, pt. ii, p. 372; Q. 88, p. 85.) 



94 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [94 

shall have the superintendence over the children of their 
respective communions," x the Roman Catholic clergy re- 
fused to act as school visitors. The hierarchy tenaciously 
held to its policy that an educational system, to be acceptable 
to it, must recognize not only the denominational right to 
teach, but that such instruction must be under an educa- 
tional department composed exclusively of Roman Cath- 
olics under the direction of their bishop. 2 This was ob- 
tained a few years later by placing the control of Roman 
Catholic education in the hands of the church. 3 

Thus the position of the Roman Catholic church now 
became much stronger than under the French regime; for 
not only had the church control of education, but indirectly, 
through the taxing power of the fabriqucs* she was able 
to assess her people for the propagation of the Roman Cath- 
olic faith in the parish schools. 

The social and moral solidarity, which has been empha- 
sized in this chapter, made the French Canadian population 
as clay in the hands of the ecclesiastical potter. 5 The con- 
servatism and traditionalism of such a homogeneous agri- 
cultural type of mind on the one hand rendered the people 
willingly obedient to the unquestioned authority of the 
church, while on the other, the barrier of language and the 
censorship of the hierarchy shut out everything tending to 
question this authority of the church. It is not surprising 

1 Can. and its Prov., vol. xvi, Q. 2, pp. 450-455 5 cf. An Act for the 
Establishment of Free schools and the Advancement of Learning in this 
Province, Anno quadragesimo primo Georgii, III, 1801, Laws of Lower 
Canada, 1793-1804, vol. iii, p. 128. 

2 Can. and its Prov., op. cit. t vol. xvi, Q. 2, pp. 409-410. 

3 Ibid., vol. xvi, Q. 2, pp. 412-413 ; cf. An Act to Facilitate the Estab- 
lishment and Endowment of Elementary Schools in the Parishes of this 
Province, Anno Quarto Georgii, IV, 1824, Laws of Lower Canada, 1821- 
3824, p. 684. 

4 A council for the financial administration of a parish. 

5 Cf. Blackmar and Gillen, Outlines of Sociology, p. 350. 



qc] SOCIAL AND MORAL SOLIDARITY 95 

therefore that the church, thus strongly organized and ade- 
quately supported, unchallenged by any rival, religious or 
secular, except the state, should have been able to strengthen 
its influence and centralize its control. The possession of 
this immense centralized control, as the subsequent chapters 
show, not only brought the church into a conflict with the 
state but, of necessity, tended to a jealous guardianship of 
that control itself on the part of church authorities. 



PART II 
CHURCH AND STATE 



j CHAPTER IV 

The Church and State in the French Period 

The foregoing chapters have laid the sociological basis 
for explaining in some measure at least why it was that 
ecclesiastical control became so dominant in Quebec. They 
have made plain, to some extent at all events, that the situa- 
tion, natural resources, population factors, occupations, lan- 
guage, social organization, psychological characteristics of 
the inhabitants, religious and educational institutions, of 
the region now included in the Province of Quebec were all 
conducive to the production of a remarkably homogeneous 
population and a well-developed mental and moral soli- 
darity. It remains to trace in further detail the historical de- 
velopment of ecclesiastical control, and to show somewhat 
fully the precise ways in which the demographic and social 
factors heretofore considered reacted in that process up to 
the time of the Constitutional Act (1791). 

The evolution of ecclesiastical control in Quebec, histori- 
cally considered, falls naturally into two main periods; 
first the years from the settlement of the region down to 
the conquest by the British, and second the years from the 
conquest to the passing of the Constitutional Act. In both 
periods interest centres largely in the relation of Church 
and State. In both periods the power of the church was 
greatly increased in the process of adjusting the relation- 
ships of the church and state. The factors involved in the 
two periods, however, differed materially. In the first 
period there was but one religious faith to be taken into 
consideration ; in the second the Church of England entered 
99] 99 



IO o ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [ IO o 

to complicate matters. In the first period the governmental 
officials were personally of the Roman Catholic faith and 
there was comparatively little reason for religious antago- 
nism. In the second period not only were the governmental 
officials Protestant but the policies of the government itself 
were often opposed to what the Roman Catholic church 
considered its best interests. The officials were naturally 
somewhat more sympathetic with the aims of the Church 
of England than they were with those of the Roman Cath- 
olic hierarchy. Nevertheless in both periods the underlying 
demographic and social conditions remained relatively uni- 
form. In the main it was these conditions which deter- 
mined the outcome. Neither the personal characteristics of 
the rulers nor the change of political allegiance were suffi- 
cient at any time to overcome altogether the power of the 
Roman Catholic church. In fact the development of eccle- 
siastical control by the Roman Catholic church in the second 
period was more consistent than in the first, inasmuch as 
that control for some eighty years previous to the conquest 
showed a marked decline. 

It is the purpose of this and the following chapters to 
trace the record of this evolution in detail. The present 
chapter will deal with the French period ; the following one 
with the English period down to and including the Consti- 
tutional Act, as it affected both the Protestant and Roman 
Catholic churches, and the final chapter will include the 
summary and conclusion. 

The foundation for the dominance of the church in Que- 
bec was laid by two important preliminary facts — first, the 
religious motive in the exploration and colonization of New 
France, 1 and, second, the faithful work of the Recollets. 

1 The planting of the cross on the Gaspe Coast by Jacques Carrier 
was as significant for establishing the right of the Roman Catholic 
faith as the right of the French King. Cartier's purpose, in this initial 



Id] CHURCH AND STATE IN FRENCH PERIOD IO I 

act of France in Canada, was to impress the natives with its religious 
significance; for he says: "After it [the cross] was raised in the air, 
we fell on our knees, with hands joined, while adoring it, before them, 
and made them signs, looking up and showing them the sky, that it 
was for our redemption." (First Voyage of Jacques Cartier, Dodd, 
Mead & Co., N. Y., 1906, p. 112.) The desire of Cartier to point the 
natives to the cross was characteristic of an age of religious enthu- 
siasm both in government and people. Next to the passion for terri- 
torial aggrandizement was the pious wish to convert the heathen natives 
to the Roman Catholic faith. Cartier had been authorized to discover 
new lands " in order the better to do what is pleasing to God, our 
Creator and Redeemer, and what may be for the increase of his holy 
and sacred name, and of our holy mother, the Church." (Jesuit Rela- 
tions, vol. i, p. 5.) The letters-patent of the king, October 17, 1540, 
emphasized that one of the chief objects was to convert the natives 
and to propagate Christianity in North America. (Rochemonteix, Les 
Jisuites et la Nouvelle-France, Paris, 1895, vol. i, p. 3.) The charter 
of Henry IV, granting a monopoly of the fur trade to De Monts, 
stated that [the king was] "moved more especially by a singular zeal 
and by a pious and steadfast resolution which we have taken, with the 
aid and assistance of God, ... to bring about the conversion to Chris- 
tianity of the tribes inhabiting this country, . . . and to lead and in- 
struct them in the belief and profession of our faith and religion." 
(Lescarbot, History of New France, Champlain Society, vol. ii, pp. 211- 
212.) His commission from the Lord High Admiral Charles de Mont- 
morency required that "he seek to lead the natives thereof to the 
profession of the Christian faith, to civilization of manners, an ordered 
life. . . ." (Ibid., p. 217.) 

De Monts apparently accepted with some seriousness the responsi- 
bility of converting the natives, for he wrote to the Pope for his 
blessing. " Inasmuch as his chief object is to establish the Christian 
religion in the land which his Majesty had been pleased to grant to 
him and to lead to that faith the poor savage folk ... he thought fit 
to ask the blessing of the Pope ... by a formal letter." (Ibid., pp. 
368-369.) 

Champlain attributed much of his zeal as an explorer to the oppor- 
tunity it gave for evangelization, for by it the poor natives were to be 
led to a knowledge of God. (Cham plain's Voyages, vol. iii, pp. 43, 91- 
02, 99 et scq.; cf. Lescarbot. op. cit.. vol. i, pp. 13-14-) "To this end' 
[says Champlain] I exerted myself to find some good friars with zeal 
and affection for the glory of God that I might persuade them to send 
some one or to go themselves with me to these countries, and to try to 
plant there the faith, or at least to do what was possible according to 
their calling, and thus to observe and ascertain whether any good fruit 



I02 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [102 

The Recollets, 1 although only ten years in the country prior 
to their overthrow by the Jesuits, laid a splendid foundation 
for successful missionary activity among the Indians. The 
power of the Recollets in this early period, however, was 
brief and left no lasting mark on the system of eccle- 
siastical control in Quebec. The rise of that control more 
properly dates from the coming of the Jesuits in 1625. 
The Jesuits soon after their arrival were able to usurp the 
place so worthily held by the RScollets, both by securing 
the moral and financial support of the Company of One 
Hundred Associates, 2 and by bringing pressure to bear in 
France to prevent the further emigration of Recollets to 
Canada. 3 This accomplished, they began to tighten their 
hold upon the state, until by the middle of the seventeenth 
century, Quebec was little more than a Jesuit mission- 4 
This rise of ecclesiastical control was further accelerated 

could be gathered there." (Champlain's Voyages, vol. iii, p. 101.) 
Lescarbot's appeal on behalf of Christian missions among the Indians 
is worthy of the twentieth century. His ground for support is "to 
chase their ignorance from them, to open unto them the way of salva- 
tion and to cause to be known the goodly things, alike natural and 
supernatural. . . ." (Lescarbot, op. cit., vol. i, p. 11.) 

1 Champlain at first had considerable difficulty in securing support 
for his mission on the St. Lawrence. It was not until he had enlisted 
the interest of Houel, the secretary of the king, who " was a man of 
deep piety and great zeal and love for the honor of God and the ex- 
tension of religion," he met with success. At Houel's suggestion the 
Recollets were asked to undertake the mission, and after securing 
sufficient funds in 1615 the five Recollets, Fathers Denis, Jamay, 
d'Albeau le Caron, and a lay-brother, Pacifique de Plessis, founded the 
first mission in Quebec. (Champlain's Voyages, vol. iii, pp. 102-106; 
cf. Kingsford, vol. i, p. 48.) 

2 Eastman, op. cit., p. 15. 

3 Kingsford, op. cit., vol. i, p. 122 et seq.; Eastman, pp. 15-16. 

4 " More and more the powers spiritual engrossed the colony. As 
nearly as might be, the sword was in priestly hands. The Jesuits were 
all in all." (Parkman, op. cit., p. 245; cf. pp. 250-252; Eastman, pp. 
16-19.) 



10 3] CHURCH AND STATE IN FRENCH PERIOD i $ 

by the policy of securing the appointment of government 
officials for the colony who were highly acceptable to the 
Society of Jesus. Some even owed official allegiance to 
the church. Both Montmagny, the governor and successor 
to Champlain, and De Lisle, his lieutenant, were chevaliers 
of the Order of Malta. 1 Le Jeune wrote that they, 

have given us as governor one of his chevaliers whom I would 
willingly call, with due respect to all those brave soldiers of 
Jesus Christ, the honor of Malta and the good fortune of our 
colony. Monsieur his Lieutenant, who wears this same honor- 
able cross, walks so strictly in his footsteps, that we all have 
reasons to acknowledge our great obligation to this holy 
soldiery, constantly armed for the glory of the Christian name. 2 

When it is remembered that the Council was composed 
of only three members, one of whom was of the character 
just described, and the second the superior of the Jesuits,* 
at once the theocratic form of this body becomes patent. 

The introduction of the popular element into the Council 
in 1648 by the addition of two inhabitants elected by the 
syndics of Quebec, Montreal, and Three Rivers, 4 had 
checked somewhat the dominance of the ecclesiastics. This 
they resented, and in 1663, partly owing to their influence, 
the Sovereign Council was established. In the new Council, 
the edict provided that the bishop, or the first ecclesiastic 
in the country, should share with the governor-general the 
power of appointing the other members of the Council, who 
were to comprise five councilors, an attorney-general, and a 
clerk. 3 

1 Parkman, The Jesuits in North America, vol. i, pp. 241-246. 

* Rel., vol. xi, p. 49. 
3 Cahall, p. 14. 

* Ibid., p. 15. 

* Ibid., p. 22. 



104 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [104. 

The personnel of the first Sovereign Council was com- 
pletely of Laval's choosing. For, after the clash between 
the clergy and D'Avaugour, resulting in the latter s recall, 
Laval had been invited by the king to nominate a successor. 
This he did, and Suffray de Mesy 1 was appointed gov- 
ernor. 2 Mesy, however, being ignorant of the situation, 
the king intrusted the blank commissions to Laval, 3 who 
filled them with the names of men among whom there was 
" complete union ". 4 

The large service which the missionaries were able to 
render the less permanent government officials as agents of 
the state among the Indians was another factor in increas- 
ing the authority of the church. The French government 
was not slow to realize the political as well as the religious 
significance of missions among the Indians. The " black 
robes' " intimate knowledge of the language, habits and 
customs of the savages rendered them invaluable as inter- 
preters, 5 and as the medium of communication between the 
government and the natives. 6 Denonville wrote to Seig- 
nelay, 

though the interests of the Gospel should not engage us to keep 
missionaries in all the Iroquois and other Indian villages, the 

1 Usually spelled Mezy. The spelling given is that of his signature 
to the minutes of the Sovereign Council. 

2 Charlevoix, op. cit., vol. iii, pp. 73-74 ; Eastman, op. cit., p. 48. 

3 Eastman, p. 49. Eastman's interpretation here may be open to 
doubt. The document states that five persons were to be appointed 
whose " expeditions" have been delivered to the bishop. (C. A., B. 1, 
p. 109.) 

*■ Lettres de la Venerable Mere Marie de I' Incarnation, p. 589, cited 
by Eastman, p. 50. 

5 Charlevoix, op. cit., vol. iii, p. 151 ; ibid., vol. v, pp. 149-150. 

6 Ibid., vol. iii, pp. 267-269, 302-303; vol. v, p. 236; Colon. Docs. N. Y.. 
vol. ix, pp. 297, 713. 



io ^] CHURCH AND STATE IN FRENCH PERIOD IC> 5 

interest of civil government for the advantage of trade must 
induce us so to manage as always to have some there ; for 
these Indian tribes can never govern themselves except by 
those missionaries, who alone are able to maintain them in our 
interests and to prevent their revolting against us every day. 1 

The missionaries, and more especially the Jesuits, not 
only were most familiar with Indian affairs, ~ but they were 
able to obtain the secret information 3 which so often en- 
abled French diplomacy to retain the friendship of the In- 
dians and to outwit their English rivals. 

It was through their services in negotiating treaties, more 
especially with the Indians, that the missionaries were able 
to make, perhaps, their largest contribution to the state.* 
Some of these, such as Father John de Lamberville, 5 and 
Father Bruyas, seem to have become expert in diplomacy. 
Such service, in a time when the very life of the colony was 
threatened by Indian wars, was bound to be recognized, 
and to win prestige and authority for the clergy as a whole. 

It is doubtful, however, whether the clergy would have 

1 Colon. Docs. N. Y., vol. ix, p. 440; cf. Eastman, op. cit., p. 255. 

2 Charlevoix, op. cit., vol. iii, p. 268; Eastman, p. 210; Colon. Docs. 
N. )'.. vol. ix, p. 440. 

3 " It was not that the nation was better disposed to embrace Chris- 
tianity; but it was not useless to religion, and it was important to the 
colony to have among these savages persons invested with a character 
capable of impressing them, whose presence assured them of a desire 
to live in peace with them ; who could enlighten their conduct, notify 
the governor-general of all their proceedings, gain them by affability, 
or at least make friends among them — above all, discover and discon- 
cert the intrigues of the English. . . ." (Charlevoix, vol. v, p. 155; 
cf. ibid., vol. iv, p. 239; vol. v, pp. 153. 203.) 

4 The governor-general cannot be without the service of the Jesuits 
in making treaties with the governors of New England and New York, 
as well as with the Iroquois." (La Hontan, op. cit., p. 365; cf. East- 
man, p. 23.) 

•" Charlevoix, op. cit., vol. iii, pp. 220, 253, 267, 299. 

6 Ibid., vol. v. pp. 107, 140. 



io 6 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [ io 6 

been able to continue their influence, or whether the church, 
as a whole, would have been able to maintain its con- 
trol to the extent that it did under the ambitious colonial 
policy of Colbert, had it not been for the arrival, in 1759, 
of Vicar-general Laval. 

Laval undoubtedly made the largest contribution to eccle- 
siastical control in Quebec ever made by any single eccle- 
siastic. This he accomplished, both by having the church 
become directly dependent upon the Papal See, and by giv- 
ing unity to the ecclesiastical forces. Strongly ultramontane, 
his consecration by the pope as vicar-general, thus evad- 
ing the king's nomination, and his victory over the Vicar- 
General Queylus, the appointee of the Archbishop of Rouen, 
was a triumph for the papacy and a defeat for the Gallican 
church. 

At this time there were two great parties among the Ro- 
man Catholics of France : the Gallican or National party, 
and the Ultramontane or Papal party. The first held that 
the temporal sword belonged to the king, and the spiritual 
power to the church in the kingdom ; x while the second 
maintained the pope to be Christ's vicegerent, supreme over 
earthly rulers, as well as exercising jurisdiction over all 
the clergy of Christendom. 2 The chief exponents of this 
Ultramontane or Papal party were the Jesuits, 3 so that it is 
not difficult to understand Laval's intolerant attitude in 
New France towards the struggle for temporary supremacy 

1 Champeaux, Recueil general du droit civil ecclesiastique francais, 
2d ed., vol. i, p. 109 et seq.; cf. Cambridge Modern History, vol. ii, 
p. 95 ; vol. v, pp. 72-77. 

2 Parkman, Old Regime, p. 95; also " Gallicanism," The Catholic 
Encyclopedia, vol. vi, p. 354. 

3 Wilhelm Moeller, History of the Christian Church, Reformation, 
pp. 262-265. For a time the Jesuits did take the side of Louis XIV 
(R. Travers Smith, The Church in France, p. 378). 



loy] CHURCH AND STATE IN FRENCH PERIOD i y 

carried on by Frontenac, or towards the episcopal claims 
of Queylus- 1 

During the years 1655, 1656 and 1657, just previous to 
the departure of Laval for Canada, the French clergy had 
been remonstrating against the abuses to which they con- 
sidered themselves subject. So effective was their agitation 
that the king, in March, 1666, issued a declaration contain- 
ing thirty articles, upholding the clergy in their immunities, 
franchises, liberties, rights and prerogatives. 2 It is clear 
that Laval was determined to secure these for the church 
in New France, and from the very beginning laid his plans 
accordingly. 

Louis XIV assumed charge of the government in 1661. 
The king, although only twenty-three years old, had wel- 
comed the theory of absolute monarchy founded on divine 
right. " In his eyes royalty was a divine institution : sov- 
ereigns were the representatives of God upon the earth, and 
on this account participated in his power and infallibility." 
The Sorbonne further supported this theory by declaring, 
in 1663, that it admitted no authority of the pope over the 
king's temporal dominion, nor his superiority to a general 
council, nor infallibility apart from the church's consent 
A practical expression was soon given to this claim by the 
attempt of the king, in 1673, to extend the right of regale 4 " 
to all the churches. This brought him into conflict with 
Pope Innocent XI. 3 In order to put an end to this contro- 

1 Parkman, Old Regime, p. 97 et seq. 

2 Champeaux, op. cit., vol. i, p. 181 et seq. 

s Duruy's Hist, of France, p. 417. 

* The right of receiving the revenues of vacant sees, and of con- 
ferring such sees. 

1 Cambridge Modern History, vol. v, pp. 52, 85; cf. also Cath. Ency., 
vol. vi. p. 354. 



108 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [108 

versy, Louis XIV called an assembly of the French clergy, 
who, in the declaration of March, 1682, upheld the au- 
thority of the king and the autonomy of the church in four 
propositions, which may be summarized as follows : 

1. God has not given to St. Peter and his successors any 
power, either direct or indirect, over temporal matters ; there- 
fore in these matters the pope has no jurisdiction over the 
king or his subjects. 

2. The Gallican church approves the decrees of the Council 
of Constance declaring cecumenical councils superior to the 
pope in spiritual matters, and holds them as still in full force. 1 

3. The usages and rules of the Gallican church in the king- 
dom, shall remain unchanged, and it is to the glory of the Holy 
See that they should so remain. 

4. The decisions of the pope in questions of faith are not 
final until ratified by the church. 2 

Laval took good care that this victory for the king and 
the Gallican church in France should not be repeated in 
Canada. Indeed, his consecration by the pope as vicaf- 
apostolic, thus evading the king's nomination, had been a 
triumph for the papacy. The anger of the Gallicans, and 
the opposition of the Archbishop of Rouen, as well as the 
protests of the parliaments of Rouen and Paris, at this ex- 
clusion of Canada from the Concordat, had been all to no 

1 The fourth and fifth sessions of the council of Constance declared 
that the council represented the church, and that every person, no 
matter of what dignity — even the pope — was bound to obey it in what 
concerned the extirpation of schism and the reform of the church; 
that even the pope, if he resisted obstinately, might be constrained by 
process of law to obey it in the above-mentioned points. (Cath. Ency., 
vol. vi, p. 354; cf. Smith, op. cit., p. 234.) 

1 Declaration du clerge de France sur la puissance ecclesiastique, 
Champeaux, op. cit., vol. i, p. 198; cf. Cambridge Modem History, vol. 
v, pp. 85-86. 



109] CHURCH AND STATE IN FRENCH PERIOD iQ g 

purpose. 1 The decline of the influence of the Gallican 
church in directing ecclesiastical affairs in Canada, was 
brought about still further, as has been pointed out, by 
Laval's successful attempt, on his arrival in Canada, to oust 
the Sulpician Vicar-general, Queylus, appointee of the Arch- 
bishop of Rouen. This determination of Laval to uphold 
the papacy at the expense of the Gallican church, 2 and the 
success which attended it, won for the papacy a hold upon 
Quebec which it still possesses. 

Laval, no doubt, recognized, in accepting the appoint- 
ment of vicar-apostolic, that he would be made Bishop of 
Quebec. As early as 1647, in constituting the Upper Coun- 
cil, the king had made provision that the council should be 
composed " of the Governor of Quebec, the Governor of 
Montreal, and the Superior of the Jesuits until there should 
be a bishop." 3 In 1662, Laval received from Louis XIV 
the assurance that he would petition the pope for the erec- 
tion of a see of Quebec, which he did two years later. The 
king also assigned for the proposed bishopric the revenues 
of the abbey of Maubec. 4 

1 Parkman, Old Regime (1874), pp. 96-97; cf. ibid., Champlain Edi- 
tion, vol. i, pp. 152-153. 
1 C. A., M. 128, p. 389. 

3 Brumath. Bishop Laval, Makers of Canada, vol. ii, p. 25. 

4 " The choice made by your Holiness of the person of the Sieur de 
Laval, Bishop of Petraea, to go in the capacity of apostolic vicar to 
exercise episcopal functions in Canada has been attended by many 
advantages to this growing church. We have reason to expect still 
greater results if it please your Holiness to permit him to continue 
there the same functions in the capacity of bishop of the place, by 
establishing for this purpose an episcopal see in Quebec; and we hope 
that your Holiness will be the more inclined to this since we have 
already provided for the maintenance of the bishop and his canons by 
consenting to the perpetual union of the abbey of Maubec with the 
future bishopric. This is why we beg you to grant to the Bishop of 
Petraea the title of Bishop of Quebec upon our nomination and prayer, 
with power to exercise in this capacity the episcopal functions in all 
Canada." (Mandements, vol. i, p. 82 el seq.; cf. ibid., pp. 131-132.) 



II0 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [ II0 , 

To Laval the bishop's see represented increased power, 
and he left no stone unturned to secure it. He acknowl- 
edges this to the Propaganda : 

I have never till now sought the episcopacy, ... I have, how- 
ever, learned by long experience how unguarded is the position 
of an apostolic vicar against those who are entrusted with 
political affairs, I mean the officers of the court, perpetual 
rivals and despisers of the ecclesiastical power, who have 
nothing more common to object than that the authority of the 
apostolic vicar is doubtful and should be restricted within 
certain limits. This is why, after having maturely considered 
everything, I have resolved to resign this function and to re- 
turn no more to New France unless a see be erected there, and 
unless I be provided and furnished with bulls constituting me 
its occupant. Such is the purpose of my journey to France 
and the object of my desires. 1 

The influence of Gallicanism was too strong in France, 
however, and the king insisted that the new diocese should 
be dependent upon the Metropolitan of Rouen, while the 
Propaganda refused to establish it unless " as an imme- 
diate dependency of the Holy See." 2 This conflict delayed 
the papal bull for the erection of the bishopric. From a 
letter of Laval to the Propaganda in September, 1669, the 
difficulty seems to have been clear to him, for he says : 

I know well how much I owe to your Eminences who confer 
upon me all sorts of benefits ; and, as I have heard, it is not 
owing to you that the chief business of this church, namely, 
the exaltation thereof to the rank of the Episcopate, has failed 
of accomplishment. It is said that the delay arises from the 
protest of the Archbishop of Rothoma [Rouen], who main- 
tains that the Episcopate in Canada should be subject to his 

1 Brumath, op. cit., vol. ii, pp. 130-131. 

2 Ibid., pp. 132-133- 



Hi] CHURCH AND STATE IN FRENCH PERIOD i 1 T 

Archbishopric. And, assuredly, if there is nothing more in- 
volved, and your Eminences judge that this ought to be done, 
I willingly agree thereto ; and, lest any damage be caused to 
the order and liberty of the church, it would be expedient per- 
haps that this arrangement should be made only for a time — 
as long, that is to say, as he is so bishop, and that it is not yet 
fitting that an archbishop should be appointed, inasmuch as 
once such appointment was made, that subjection would cease. 
Concerning these matters I have written something to His 
Holiness, as also, shortly, concerning other matters that per- 
tain to our affairs. 1 

This letter shows that Laval, in his eagerness to obtain the 
episcopate in Canada, was willing to have it continue under 
the Archbishopric of Rouen during the archbishop's incum- 
bency. He insisted, however, that " Nothing stable is to 
be hoped for until something definite be determined con- 
cerning the fixity of the episcopate and of the parishes." L 
In the meantime he requested that the papal authority be 
maintained by the appointment of a parish priest direct 
from Rome. 2 

Five years later, on the first of October, 1674, the im- 
portunity of Laval was rewarded, for the Papal Court 
issued the bull establishing the Archbishopric of Quebec. 
This was made possible by an understanding having been 
reached between Louis XIV and Pope Clement X, through 
which the right of nomination became the prerogative of 
the king, and the bishopric became directly dependent upon 

1 Laval to their Eminences, Sept. 30, 1669, C. A., M. 128, p. 389. 

2 "If the matter of the Episcopate cannot be settled this year, and the 
titles of the Parishes, which are so necessary, cannot be obtained, your 
Eminences will do what is essential and most effective in supporting 
the Christian Faith, if, at least by the Apostolic Authority, a Parish 
Priest be appointed as soon as possible in the church of Quebec." 
(Ibid.) 



H2 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [i I2 

the See of Rome. 1 The king's right of nomination was 
conceded on the ostensible ground that it was in return for 
the assignation of the abbey of Maubec. 2 The bishop was 
to have the full episcopal rights and benefits of the new 
see, together with the cure of souls in the suppressed paro- 
chial church. 3 Sufficient canonries and prebends were to be 
established to constitute the officers and holders of these 
a chapter. 4 

This increased episcopal authority came at an opportune 
time to meet the growing power of the state. The theo- 

1 " And we do grant to the same King Louis and his successors, in 
consideration of the assignation, made as above with the consent of 
the said King Louis, to the aforesaid Episcopal Board, of the aforesaid 
Abbey, the right of nomination to the aforesaid Church of Quebec, in 
case the same shall be temporarily deprived, through resignation or 
death, or in any other manner, of the consoling ministry of a pastor ; and 
to him who, or to those who found and endow canonries and prebends 
and other ecclesiastical benefices and ministries from their own goods, 
always, be it understood, in accord with the will of the Bishop — we [in 
similar case] grant the right of patronage; but such nomination [to 
permanent office], as far as the Church of Quebec is concerned, [shall 
belong] to us, or to our successor, the Roman Pontiff as the time in 
which canonries, prebends and benefices and ministries of the lika 
nature fall vacant for presentation, and when such appointments are 
due to be made in presence of the Ordinary of Quebec [Bishop in 
office]. (Bull, Establishing the Archbishopric of Quebec, Oct. ist, 
1674, Mandements, vol. i, p. 82 et seq.) 

3 Ibid. 

1 " This Parochial Church, the title and description of Parochial 
Church being suppressed and extinguished for all time, we do erect 
and form into a Cathedral Church, directly subject unto the Apostolic 
See, with the appointment to the said church of Quebec of a Bishop 
who shall preside over the same with full episcopal rights and dignity, 
and shall discharge in the same and in its diocese all and sundry those 
matters, to be enumerated below, that belong to the jurisdiction and 
dignity of the episcopal order and the exercise of the pastorate, and 
that bear upon and pertain to the summoning and holding session of 
the diocesan synod." (Bull, Establishing the Archbishopric of Quebec, 
Oct. 1, 1674, Mandements, vol. i, p. 82 et seq.) 

* Ibid. 



H3] CHURCH AND STATE IN FRENCH PERIOD nj 

cratic cabal said to have been chosen by Laval, after his re- 
turn to Canada in 1663, l had been shortlived; for as soon 
as Mesy knew he had the support of Colbert, 2 he broke with 
the bishop, and openly defied the clerical party. 3 His suc- 
cessors, Tracy, Courcelle, and Talon, were even more suc- 
cessful in undermining the temporal influence of the cleri- 
cal forces. 4 

Thus, before the arrival of Frontenac (in 1672), who 
still further weakened the authority of the church, 5 the 
zenith of ecclesiastical control under the French regime 
had been reached. The ambitious policy of Colbert had 
given a new strength and dignity to temporal affairs, both 
at home and abroad. New France, under the able admin- 
istration of Talon, had begun to be developed. The fur- 
company mission-station was giving place to the well- 
organized colony. Peace was no longer to be preserved be- 
tween the governor and clergy, by the submission of the 
state to the spiritual and temporal control of the church. 7 

Only for a brief period under the administration of De- 
nonville (1685-1689) did the church ever regain, under 
the French regime, even the semblance of her former 
power. 8 This revival in the temporal authority of the hier- 

1 Eastman, op. cit., p. 49. 

* Colbert held that it was of vital importance "to hold in a just bal- 
ance" the temporal authority of the king and his ministers and the 
spiritual authority of the bishop and the Jesuits, " in such a manner, 
nevertheless, that the latter shall be inferior to the former." (Ibid., 
P- 99) 

* Ibid., pp. 79-89. 

* Ibid., p. 90 et seq. 
6 Ibid., p. 263. 

* Duruy's History of France, p. 423 et seq. 
T Parkman, Old Regime (1874), pp. 106-107. 
8 Eastman, op. cit., p. 260. 



H4 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [ II4 

archy, far from showing any permanent tendency, rather 
represented a reaction following the anti-clericalism of 
Frontenac. It is true that the king urged Denonville to 
preserve harmonious relations with the bishop; he was to 
do his utmost for the cause of religion, and was to be 
careful not to exceed his own authority, or to encroach upon 
that of the bishop. 1 

After the failure of Denonville's Indian policy, and the 
return of Frontenac, the temporal authority of the church 
again declined. 2 In theory, the church remained as ultra- 
montane as formerly ; in practice, more and more the Galli- 
can influence was felt. 

Although Laval had succeeded in making the Archbish- 
opric of Quebec dependent upon the See of Rome, the de- 
cline in the actual power of the church which followed the 

1 " He knows that the chief and essential duty is to satisfy the re- 
quirements of religion, upon which depends the blessing which may be 
looked for from Heaven, and without which nothing can have a happy 
issue, and His Majesty desires that the authority entrusted to the said 
M. de Denonville should be employed chiefly to promote, as far as lies 
in his power, the glory of God throughout the colony, and the spread 
of the Christian Religion, as far as this can be done among the neigh- 
boring Indians. 

"To this intent His Majesty desires that he may, in all things, pre- 
serve harmonious relations with the Abbe de Chevrieres, appointed to 
the Bishopric of Quebec; that he lend [the Abbe] every assistance and 
protection in whatsoever pertains to his functions, and that he con- 
tribute by his attention and diligence to all that may concern the 
spiritual welfare of the Colony, without, nevertheless, in any way ex- 
ceeding his functions in that respect, or doing anything on his own 
authority, or without the participation of the said Bishop; and it will 
be the easier to cooperate with him for the spiritual welfare of the 
Colony inasmuch as the said Bishop, being a man of exemplary piety, 
will have no difficulty in acting in concert with a Governor whom he 
finds favorably disposed to all that concerns spiritual things." (In- 
structions to Denonville, March 10, 1685, C. A., B. 11, p. 150; cf. C. A., 
B, vol. xvi, pt. i, p. 133 et seq.) 
2 Eastman, op. cit., pp. 263-265. 



U$] CH URCH AND ST A TE IN FRENCH PERIOD 1 1 5 

struggle between Laval and Frontenac and which accom- 
panied the rise of Gallican influence paved the way for 
definite pressure by the state for the purpose of further 
limiting ecclesiastical control. This pressure evinced itself 
in resistance to the hierarchy in Sovereign Council, in the 
matter of tithes, in restrictions upon religious houses, in 
restrictions upon the public ministry of the church and in 
various matters involving the relation of the church and 
parishioners. The theory used in developing this pressure 
was that the king was the head of the church. When pres- 
sure began to be exerted with a strong hand the state easily 
overthrew the power of the hierarchy in the Sovereign 
Council, and thwarted the repeated attempts of the clergy 
to have the tithes increased and to regulate their collection. 
The erection of religious houses and their regulation were 
handled with equal efficiency. In the public ministry of the 
church, such matters as the number of candidates to be al- 
lowed to study for the church, the use of the pulpit as an 
agency of publicity, as well as the attitude toward the 
brandy trade, reveal the strong hand which the state held 
over the church. Questions of church polity, such as the 
protection of the rights of parishioners, cure and seignior 
against encroachment on the part of the bishop, which 
to-day would be entirely within the ecclesiastical jurisdic- 
tion of the church, were actively dealt with by the state. 

In the Sovereign Council, as has been mentioned, the 
bishop soon lost his place of great influence and power. In- 
stead of continuing to select its members, he became only 
an honorary member himself. In 1703 his right to be rep- 
resented by an ecclesiastic was abolished, and a clerical 
councilor was appointed to be the permanent representative 
of the church interests. 1 After 1668, Cahall says he ceased 

1 Cahall, op. cit., p. 151. 



H6 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [ H 6 

to exercise his right to sign the minutes, 1 which, seven 
years later, became the duty of the Intendant. Evidence is 
lacking even to show that he ever voted in the Council. His 
influence was rather exerted indirectly through friends of 
the hierarchy in the council. 2 At times, however, his regu- 
lar attendance at the meetings of the Council, and his in- 
terest in the deliberations, occasioned some uneasiness. The 
minister complained to Duchesneau, in 1677, that, as the 
bishop was assuming too independent an authority, it would 
perhaps be better that he should not have a seat in the 
council. 3 

The same attitude was shown toward the aggression of 
the church in the matter of tithes. From the first, the colo- 
nists appear to have opposed tithes, looking upon them as 
most burdensome. Laval's request, in 1667, that the tithes 
be established and collected, brought such a storm of pro- 
test from the inhabitants that the Sovereign Council re- 
duced the tithes to one twenty-sixth, and exempted new land 
from tithes for the first five years. 4 Naturally, the reduc- 
tion of the tithes met with strong opposition from the 
clergy. With the growth of the colony, new parishes had 
to be formed in sparsely-settled districts, where the income 
from the reduced tithes was insufficient to support the cure. 
The clergy sought to have the tithes restored to one-thir- 
teenth. Pressure was brought to bear in France- 5 In a 

1 Cahall, op. cit., p. 151. Cahall seems to have been mistaken in this, 
for there are numerous cases of Bishop Laval's signature affixed to the 
minutes as late as October, 1670. Jugements et Del., vol. i, pp. 575, 613, 
617, 637 and 638. 

2 Cahall, p. 151. 3 Ibid., p. 153. 

4 Charlevoix, op. cit., vol. iii, p. 24; cf. Eastman, op. cit., p. 106. 

5 " These representations and clamors only ceased when the superior 
council had reduced the tithes to a twenty-sixth." (Brasseur, Histoire 
du Canada, de son eglise et de ses missions, p. 112; cf. Charlevoix, 
vol. iii, pp. 24-25.) 



II7 ] CHURCH AND STATE IN FRENCH PERIOD ny 

letter to Frontenac, dated June 7, 1689, the king states 
that he will inquire whether it is possible to increase the 
tithes again to one-thirteenth without placing too heavy a 
burden upon the settlers. 1 The king, however, must have 
deemed it unwise to make any change, for nothing was 
done, and, in an edict of 1679, the regulation of 1667 with 
regard to tithes, was upheld. 2 It was further stated that, 
" in case the income from the lease is not sufficient for the 
support of the cure, the necessary augmentation shall be 
fixed by our Council at Quebec, and shall be furnished by 
both the seignior of the fief and the inhabitants thereof." 3 

The attempt of Bishop Saint- Valier and the Governor, 
La Barre, to enforce the edict, on the basis of a minimum 
stipend of 500 livres for each cure, was objected to by the 
king in 1684 in a letter to the bishop, on the ground that 
the stipend was too high, considering the poverty of the 
people, and that it was opposed to the interests of the col- 
ony. 4 

The clergy not only refused to accept the regulations of 
1667, 1679, and 1680, as final, but some of their number 
claimed from their parishioners tithes on all the products, 
from both cultivated and uncultivated land and even from 
the stock. To meet the situation, the Sovereign Council 
passed an ordinance in 1705, that the tithes were to remain 
at one twenty-sixth of the grain only, to be delivered at the 
presbytery; and further, that the cures were forbidden to 
make any regulations whatsoever regarding the tithes. 5 In 

1 C. A., B. 15, p. 273 et seq.; cf. also Colon. Docs. N. Y., vol. iii, pp. 
151-152. 

2 " The tithes shall be levied according to the regulations of the 
Fourth of September, One Thousand Six Hundred and Sixty Seven." 
Edits et Ord. (1803), vol. i, art. ii, p. 244. ;1 Ibid., art. iv. 

4 Charlevoix, op. cit., vol. iii, p. 25; cf. Colon. Docs. N. Y., vol. ix, 
pp. 150-151. 5 Edits et Ord. (1854), p. 308. 



n8 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [n8 

the following year, the Sovereign Council passed another 
ordinance, forbidding the cures to ask for tithes, or the in- 
habitants to pay them, except in the manner laid down by 
His Majesty. 1 These two decisions of the Sovereign Coun- 
cil were so unpopular with the clergy that, in 1707, they ap- 
pealed to the King in Council. The King, however, upheld 
the decisions of the Sovereign Council 2 of November 18, 
1705, and February 1, 1706, and forbade the clergy to make 
any innovations in the matter of tithes, under pain of a 
heavy fine. 3 

Twenty-five years later, in 1732, the cures renewed their 
petition to have the tithes augmented, on the plea that 
" three-fourths of the cures have not enough to live on." 
The court was even less sympathetic. In a letter, the min- 
ister, Maurepas, wrote as follows : 

The King has not judged proper to augment to the thirteenth 
minot, the tithes of the cures. Out of sixty-two cures, twenty- 
seven have a revenue of from eight hundred to two thousand 
four hundred livres, and thirty-five of from one hundred and 
ninety to seven hundred and thirty, outside of their per- 
quisites, which is amply sufficient for them to live on 

His Majesty has not thought fit to make any changes in 
the Canadian usage regarding tithes, and it is useless to insist 
on it any further. He knows that, in spite of any diminu- 
tions that may have taken place, the livings are good, and far 
from thinking of increasing the supplements already given, he 
may eventually decrease them, if he learns that the cures, for 
interested motives, have sought to turn the inhabitants from 
commerce or cultivation beneficial to the colony. 4 

1 Jugements et Del., vol. v, pp. 230-231. 

2 Edits et Ord. (1854), p. 311. 

3 Ibid., p. 310. 

4 Letter of M. de Maurepas to Beauharnois and Hocquart, April 1, 
1732, C. A., B. 57, pt. i, P- 49- 



IIO J CHURCH AND STATE IN FRENCH PERIOD TI g 

The opposition, both of the court and the people, against 
increasing the tithes, was equally pronounced against the use 
of undue influence in collecting them. In some of the 
country parishes, the bishops had excommunicated those 
who had neglected to pay the tithes. This rigorous action 
did not long go unchallenged. Complaints soon reached 
the cmtrt. whose attitude is seen in the following letter: 



*& 



I have spoken to the Lord Bishop of Quebec on the disadvan- 
tages which you point out to me as resulting from the exe- 
cution of the order, given by him, to refuse absolution and 
the Paschal Communion to those inhabitants of the country 
districts who have not paid their tithes; [and] I have notified 
him that it was the desire of His Majesty that he should take 
other measures to secure this end, and it is desirable to have 
information as to the expedient you propose to adopt. 1 

Other and milder expedients were used, but there seems 
to have been no improvement, on the part of the people, in 
meeting their material obligations to the church. A dis- 
patch from Beauharnois and Hocquart, in 1731, states that 
a large number of the inhabitants still neglected to pay the 
tithes, or paid them only in part. Regret was expressed, 
as this was alike prejudicial to the consciences of the people 
and to good order in the state. The cures were held to 
be to some extent responsible, and it was pointed out that 
much of the difficulty might be avoided, if the cures were 
more prompt in collecting the tithes. 2 In still another dis- 
patch of the same year, they wrote, " We have proposed 
to His Lordship the Bishop to issue a pastoral letter ( man- 
dement) instructing the people of the imperative obligation 
which they are under to pay the tithes to their cur 

1 C. A., B. 23, pt. ii, p. 279. 

2 C. A., C 11 , vol. 107, p. 198. 

1 Corresp. Gen., vol. liv, cited by Gosselin, L'Eglise du Canada, p. 150. 



I2 o ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [ I2 

These two dispatches disclose the policy of the government 
toward the church in the latter period of French rule; the 
tithes were to be collected in such a way, and at such a 
time, as was likely to cause the least prejudice among the 
people ; moral suasion was to be substituted for compulsion. 

Religious houses and religious communities, also, came 
under the careful scrutiny of the king. No foundation or 
new establishment was permitted in New France, unless it 
had the formal consent of the king, and all bequests to 
such as contravened this regulation were invalid. 1 

In 1700, before the passing of the above edict, the king 
had repeatedly refused to grant letters patent, even after 
the establishment had been made by the authority of the 
bishop. 2 With regard to the Ursulines at Three Rivers, 
the bishop was to assume responsibility for the members, 

*" Art. 1. It is our pleasure, in accordance with the commands given 
and regulations made for the interior of our kingdom, that no foun- 
dation or new establishment of houses and religious communities, hos- 
pitals, refuges, congregations, confraternities, colleges, or other relig- 
ious or lay bodies or communities, be made in our colony of America: 
save by virtue of our express permission given by our letters patent, 
registered in our Superior Council of the said colonies in the form 
that will be prescribed hereinafter. 

" Art. 2. We forbid the making of any disposition by last will or 
testament for the foundation of any new establishment of the nature 
of those mentioned in the preceding article, or in favor of persons 
who may be intrusted with the foundation of such establishments : the 
whole under pain of nullity; which requirement shall be observed, even 
if the will or testament has been made under condition of obtaining 
our letters-patent." (Edits et Ord. (1854), vol. i, pp. 576-577; cj. 
Charlevoix, op. cit., vol. iii, p. 28.) 

2 "I wrote to you last year that His Majesty had been pleased to 
allow this establishment to remain since you had founded it, but that 
he was not willing to give it His approval. He instructs me to inform 
you that He will not grant the letters-patent for which you apply." 
(The Minister to the Bishop of Quebec, May 5, 1700, C. A., Moreau 
St. Mery, F 3 , vol. vi, p. 78 et seq.) 



I2l] CHURCH AND STATE IN FRENCH PERIOD I2 i 

should they become dependent ; 1 and the king further re- 
minded him to improve the old establishments rather than 
to found new ones. 2 

The encroachment of the bishop on the rights of re- 
Hgious orders or secular institutions was closely watched. 
The minister wrote to the bishop that, 

His Majesty has also learned that you have authoritatively re- 
moved the Nursing Sisters {religieuses hospitallicres) from 
the Hotel-Dieu, to put them in charge of the General Hospital. 
His Majesty will have this disapproved of, and has commanded 
me to write to you that He desires you to send these religious 
sisters back to the Hotel-Dieu, as it is not His intention to make 
a convent of this hospital. He wishes that it should be gov- 
erned by administrators like all the other general hospitals in 
the kingdom. He instructs me to give His orders accord- 
ingly to the said Srs. de Calleres and de Champigney. I am 
now writing to them at the same time to act in concert with 
you in this matter, and to leave to you the care of removing 
these religious persons in whatever manner you think fit — His 
Majesty being pleased to intrust you with this duty, as long as 
it be performed. 3 

1 " His Majesty . . . has read with sincere sorrow reports which 
have been sent him from many places, of the evil effects which follow 
your founding religious houses for men and women, and he has been 
assured that already it is possible to see to what suffering the Ursuline 
Nuns, established by you at Three Rivers, are certain to be exposed; 
and without taking account of this, you have caused them to admit new 
members who are without dowry. Be good enough to make provision 
for the future of these young women, in case that, through lack of 
funds, it should be found necessary to dissolve this community." 
(Ibid.) 

* "He commands me, furthermore, to inform you that you will please 
him much if you will make every effort to improve the old establish- 
ments of the communities of nuns, which are now only too numerous, 
instead of founding new ones, which cannot be suitable to a colony 
like that of Canada." (Ibid.) 

3 C. A., F 3 , vol. vi, p. 78 et seq. 



I22 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [122 

The public ministry of the church had to conform to 
public policy. While the parish priests were to apply them- 
selves, principally, to the education of youth, the bishop 
was to see that the instruction was not of such a character 
as to induce too many of the young people to train for re- 
ligious orders. 1 

The state demanded the right, notwithstanding the oppo- 
sition of the bishop and clergy, of having all proclamations 
and other official announcements published from the parish 
pulpits; and further, that proper titles be given the officials 
mentioned in these documents. 2 

In the matter of the attitude and influence of the clergy 
on public questions, the state assumed the right even to 
dictate the policy of the church. The praiseworthy stand 
taken by the clergy against the brandy trade had aroused 
strong opposition from the officials, the habitants, and 
more especially the traders, who alleged that the traffic was 
necessary to the economic prosperity of the colony. It is 
evident that the minister shared this view, and determined 
that the clergy must cease their opposition to the brandy 
trade, for he wrote to Saint- Valier that, 

The continued complaints of those who are trading in Canada, 

1 " Above all, be very careful to establish in all the parishes none but 
good, capable priests who will apply themselves principally to the edu- 
cation of youth, taking care at the same time not to carry too far in- 
structions tending towards the ecclesiastical estate, as it is of impor- 
tance that there should be admitted to it only those who are necessary 
for the good of the colony." (The Minister to the Abbe de Chevrieres, 
May 31, 1686, C. A., B. 12, p. 83.) 

2 "His Majesty desires that you give the necessary orders to have 
the ordinances of the Governor-General and the Intendant published 
from the pulpit in the same way as these ordinances are usually pub- 
lished in the kingdom, this being necessary to the advantage of His 
Majesty's service; it is his will that in doing so the title of ' Mon- 
seigneur' be given to the Governor-General, but not to the Intend- 
ant. . . ." (C. A., B. 12, p. 84; cf. Eastman, op. c'xt., p. 107.) 



I2 3J CHURCH AND STATE IN FRENCH PERIOD 12 t > 

and of the greater part of the Colonists, oblige me to address 
to you the same remonstrances as the late Marquis de Seigne- 
lay sent to you last year, regarding the obstacles which are 
put in the way of the traffic in brandy and wine, in which 
they meet interference through immoderate zeal on the part 
of some of the clergy, under the pretext that the Indians are 
making an abuse of these things. And as it has appeared to 
me that the King has previously guarded against this by his 
ordinance of the 24th of May, 1679, it is of great importance 
that you should take the trouble to inquire very carefully into 
what is being done by the clergy in this and other matters, 
which may needlessly disturb the consciences of the people, 
so that, by your prudence, you may restrict them to the 
bounds within which they should confine themselves in their 
ministrations. It would even be well that you should see to 
it their zeal is not caused by personal passions and interests. 
Indeed, I cannot help repeating what was written to you last 
year in this respect, namely, that the subjects of the King 
could not carry on in Canada any trade so useful to the king- 
dom as that in wine and brandy, and that in none have they 
so great an advantage over the English and Dutch. More- 
over, it seems to me that nowhere in the Christian world has 
a case of conscience been made of the sale of brandy, the use 
of which in itself is very beneficial ; and that the French were 
established in Canada nearly a century before it occurred to 
anyone to raise this question, which it would seem that we 
might properly confine to the prevention of the abuse of 
these things, as far as possible, as is the custom elsewhere. 1 

The policy of the church likewise came under the exact- 
ing regulation of the king, who " as protector of the holy 
canons " held himself obliged " to look to it well that the 
discipline of the church is observed even in the most dis- 
tant countries under our authority." 2 It is true that the 

1 The minister to Saint-Valier. April 7, 1691, C. A., B. 16, pt. i, p. 
134; cf. Eastman, op. cit.. pp. 26, 72-82, 197-200. 222-227, -43. 275-292. 

2 Edits et Ord. (1803), vol. i, p. 243. 



I2 4 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [124 

Sovereign Council never had the courage to attack the 
bishop directly; 1 but the correspondence of the ministers 
shows plainly that the king and his ministers had no such 
scruples. 

In all the relations of the bishop, whether with the Papal 
See or the people, the king was actively supreme. On the 
question of receiving bulls from Rome, the bishop was 
plainly told by the minister that, 

His Majesty has not thought fit, as yet, to permit you to take 
Bulls, the affairs of Rome not being in such a state that he can 
give a like permission to the other priests who are nominated 
to bishoprics; but His Majesty trusts to you to come here 
whenever you think proper, being persuaded that you will do 
nothing in this but what you think most advantageous for his 
service. 2 

The king likewise held a firm hand over the ecclesiastical 
court. Several times the Sovereign Council reversed its de- 
cisions. 3 Important cases were taken to France, as is seen 
in the decree of the king regarding the claims of the Bishop 
of Quebec, the Seminary, and the Chapter, in 1692. 

The King in Council considering the decision of the eleventh 
of January, sixteen hundred and ninety-two, made by His 
Grace the Archbishop of Paris, duke and peer of France, and 
Father de la Chaize, confessor to His Majesty, with the con- 
sent of the Lord Bishop of Quebec and of Father de Brisacier, 
Superior of the Seminary for Foreign Missions, acting both 
for the said Seminary and Chapter of Quebec regarding several 
questions in dispute between the said Bishop and the said 
Seminary and Chapter, by which decision the said Lord Arch- 
bishop and Father de la Chaize have pronounced upon all the 
points in dispute: His Majesty desiring that the decision have 

1 Cahall, op. cit., p. 153. 2 C. A., B. 12, p. 83. 

3 Cahall, p. 154- 



I2 5] CHURCH AND STATE IN FRENCH PERIOD Y2 ^ 

full and entire execution, His Majesty being in council, hath 
ordained, and doth ordain that the said decision of the Eleventh 
of January, Sixteen Hundred and Ninety Two shall be exe- 
cuted according to its form and tenor, to which effect all 
necessary letters shall be despatched. 1 

The same was true with regard to excommunication. 
Although it was an acknowledged weapon of the church, 
the king refused to permit the bishop to use it against the 
inhabitants of the country districts who did not pay their 
tithes." Even while Laval did make use of it in the fight 
against the brandy trade, the firm stand of the governor, 
and the violent opposition of the inhabitants, led him for a 
time to revoke his decree of excommunication. 3 

The Sovereign Council, further, attempted to protect the 
parishioner against defamation of character by a priest, as 
in the Rolland case. In this case it fined the habitant who, 
at the cure's request, had taken the parishioners' signatures 
testifying to the questionable character of Rolland; 4 it for- 
bade the ecclesiastics to take any further action, 5 or the 
clergy to read any documents at the church doors that did 
not deal with purely ecclesiastical matters, or had not been 
ordered by the courts. 6 

The parochial clergy, previous to 1679, served their par- 
ishes under commission, and were removable at the pleasure 
of the bishop or the superior of the Seminary of Quebec- 7 

1 Edits et Ord. (1803), vol. i, pp. 274-275. 

* C. A., B. 23, pt. ii, p. 279; cf. C. A., Moreau St. Mery, F 3 , vol. vi, 
p. 78. 

3 Eastman, op. cit., pp. 72, 74-75. 

4 Jugements et Del., vol. ii, p. 132; cf. ibid., pp. 97-100, 103-105, 108- 
109. 

Ibid., pp. 121-122; cf. Eastman, pp. 184-187. 

6 Ibid., p. 132; cf. Cahall, op. cit., p. 153. 

7 Edits et Ord. (1803), vol. i, p. 243 et seq.; Charlevoix, op. cit., vol. 
iii, p. 22. 



I2 6 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [ I2 6 

This arrangement was considered unsatisfactory by the 
seigniors and habitants. All the tithes had been payable to 
the Seminary, and the parishioners thought that they had 
often to pay when they had received little service. 1 Not- 
withstanding that both the bishop and the Intendant Du- 
chesneau favored the old plan, Colbert informed them that 
removable priests were " directly contrary to the canons of 
the Councils, and to the laws, ordinances, and usages of 
the kingdom." 2 

A new edict was passed in 1679 under which the cures 
were to be settled permanently in the parishes, and were to 
enjoy the revenue of them, independently of either the 
bishop or the superior of the seminary. 3 

Some of the immense patronage 4 which the bishop lost 

1 Eastman, op. cit., p. 171. 
s Ibid., pp. 171, 172. 

8 " The tithes over and above the offerings and dues of the church 
shall belong entirely to each of the cures throughout the extent of the 
parish in which he is, and in which he is established permanently, in- 
stead of the removable priest, who has hitherto ministered to it. . . . 
Each cure shall have the choice of collecting the tithes, and using 
them as he sees fit, or of leasing them to private individuals, residents 
of the parish, but neither the seigniors of the fief where the church is 
situated, nor the nobility, nor officers, nor the inhabitants corporally 
shall have the right to collect them. ... If, in the course of time, it 
is necessary to increase the number of parishes owing to the growth in 
population, the tithes in that portion which shall be separated from the 
original territory, composing at present a single parish, shall belong 
entirely to the cure of the new church there established, with the 
offerings and dues of the said new church, and the cure of the old 
church shall have no claim to any recognition or compensation." (Edits 
et Ord. (1803), vol. i, p. 243 et seq.) 

4 "... . and the said bishop shall cause the cure of souls to be ex- 
ercised in the aforesaid suppressed parochial church on alternate weeks, 
or as shall otherwise seem best to him through the present rector of 
the same, with conservation to the said rector of one and all of his 
emoluments, both fixed and fluctuating, as long as he shall live, or 
with his consent given during his life, or after his death, through one 



I2j] CHURCH AND STATE IN FRENCH PERIOD 12 y 

in 1679 through the priests' being made unremovable, 1 was 
in part compensated for, in 1699, by his receiving the right 
of presentation of the cure in those parishes where the seig- 
niors of fiefs had forfeited their rights as patrons." While 
the cures were to be protected in the permanency of their 

holding a canonry or prebend in the said Church of Quebec or other 
presbyter of the same; such canon, prebend, or presbyter to be ap- 
proved by the future bishop, and the future bishop himself shall have 
power and legal right to full use, possession and enjoyment of all and 
single the privileges, honours, rights, distinctions, exemptions, liberties, 
immunities, favours, rewards, and indulgences, to the full use, posses- 
sion, and enjoyment of which other bishops have full power and right 
by common law." (Mandements, vol. i, p. 82 et seq.) 

1 Edits et Ord. (1803), vol. i, p. 243. 

2 " In the petition presented to the King in Council by the Bishop of 
Quebec, reciting that His Majesty has hitherto granted to private indi- 
viduals, to whom he has made grants of Fief in New France, the 
patronage of the churches of these fiefs, on the condition that these 
churches should be built of stone, but that, up to the present, most of 
these private individuals have shown no great desire to take advantage 
of the favor which His Majesty has been good enough to confer upon 
them, and that even the said bishop, who by right should be preferred 
to all others in having churches erected, has been prevented by these 
people from doing so, in some cases on the pretext that they are about 
to have them erected immediately themselves, and in other cases from 
a hesitation as to the location of their parishes — [all] which is contrary 
to the pious intentions of His Majesty, and prevents Divine Service 
being conducted with the proper decorum, and the inhabitants from 
receiving the spiritual assistance of which they have need : 

"To the end that such evils be avoided, His Majesty in Council has 
ordained and doth ordain that the said bishop shall have power to build 
churches of stone in all the parishes and fiefs of New France not as 
yet provided with them, in situations which shall be judged the most 
suitable for the convenience of the inhabitants ; in virtue of which 
action the bishop shall have the right of patronage of them [the 
churches], without, however, having the power to prevent the seigniors 
of the said parishes and fiefs from completing any churches under 
construction, or to prevent those who have collected the materials to 
build churches, from building them; and the patronage of these 
churches shall continue to be enjoyed by such persons as before the 
present decree." (Ibid., pp. 292-293; cj. ibid., pp. 244-245.) 



I2 8 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [ I2 8 

cures and their revenues, nevertheless they were to keep 
within the law in collecting them. 1 They were expected by 
the king to use to the utmost their influence in strengthen- 
ing the position of the state ; 2 and any marked disloyalty 
was to be followed by removal. 3 

Even the character of the Canadian priesthood appears 
not to have passed unnoticed under the watchful eye of the 
king; for instructions were given that, on account of the 
independent and unreliable disposition of the Canadians, 
few of them should be received into orders. 4 

1 Two priests who attempted to collect tithes on cattle as well as all 
products of the land were forbidden by the council to make any inno- 
vation, {lugetnents et Del., vol. v, pp. 184-186.) 

2 " . . . being persuaded that you will urge them [the clergy] to do 
everything in their power to contribute at this juncture to maintain 
among the inhabitants a spirit of firm union, of fitting obedience, and 
of willingness to employ their means and their persons for their own 
preservation. This He expects from your piety, your prudence, and 
from your affectionate devotion to His service, more than from any 
other thing." (Minister to Saint- Vallier, C. A., B. 16, pt. i, p. 137.) 

s Ibid. 

4 " Having kept in mind the directions given to him before his de- 
parture, to make few Canadian priests, on account of their independent 
and unreliable disposition, He thinks that in order to follow out this 
counsel it would be advisable that he should be able to nominate to 
the vacant canonries some of the directors of the Seminary of Quebec, 
who can easily assist at all the offices of the chancel, and also fulfil 
the duties of their community. In this way there will not be at Quebec 
so many useless priests, who, for lack of sufficient occupation, begin to 
indulge in worldly amusements, gaming, feasting and dissoluteness. 
Owing to this idleness they think of nothing but wrangling, and sow- 
ing dissensions, both among themselves and amongst the laity; and 
some there are even who use language calculated to incite the people 
to independence and revolt. He purposes also to appoint to the chap- 
ter some of the old cures who, having worked zealously in their mis- 
sions, and being no longer able to support the burden of them, would 
however be able to assist in the chancel, and to render more service to 
the people of Quebec than these young canons in whom they have no 
confidence, and who generally scandalize them. He has communicated 



l2 g] CHURCH AND STATE IN FRENCH PERIOD 129 

To summarize the various steps in the evolution of eccle- 
siastical control as dealt with in this chapter, it is necessary 
to recall both the forces favorable to the rise and develop- 
ment of ecclesiastical control and those unfavorable to it. 
As we have seen, among the forces favorable to the rise 
and development of this control were: the large place the 
conversion of the natives occupied in the minds of the early 
explorers and colonizers, the devoted character of the early 
missionaries, the astute leadership of the Jesuits in secur- 
ing officials in harmony with their aims and ideals, the suc- 
cess of the missionaries as agents of the state among the 
Indians, the efficient leadership of Laval in unifying the 
ecclesiastical factions by bringing about the triumph of the 
Papal over the Gallican party, and the erection of the Arch- 
bishopric of Quebec directly subject to the See of Rome. 
Among the important forces mentioned as unfavorable to, 
and limiting the rise and development of, ecclesiastical con- 
trol were: the new emphasis laid upon material prosperity 
under Colbert's and succeeding administrations, the recog- 
nition and acceptance of the Gallican principle that the king 
and not the pope was head of the church in all matters 
affecting the king's temporal dominion, and the contention 
that the ecumenical council and not the pope was supreme 
in all spiritual matters. We have seen also that the hostile 
attitude of the state toward the claims of the church soon 
brought about a determined resistance to the domination of 
the Roman Catholic hierarchy in the Sovereign Council, 
and. in addition, active interference by the state in such 
matters as tithes, religious houses, the public ministry of 
the church and numerous other clerical encroachments. 
Thus under the French regime the state, from being the 

this project to M. de Beauharnois, who has approved highly of it." 
( M de Beauharnois and Hocquart to Conseil de Marine, June 17, 1730, 
C. A., C 11 , vol. cvi, p. 209.) 



^o ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [^o 

handmaid of the church, gradually became its master, and 
wielded the temporal sword with an iron hand. From the 
beginning of the rise of ecclesiastical control under the 
Jesuits until its challenge during the progressive adminis- 
tration of Colbert, theocratic influences predominated. For 
the remainder of French rule in Quebec, with the exception 
of the short term of Governor Denonville between the twc 
administrations of Frontenac, the influence of the church 
was more and more confined to the spiritual sphere. 



CHAPTER V 
Church and State under British Rule 

The golden age of the Roman Catholic church in 
Quebec is to-day generally believed to have been during the 
French regime. That this is not warranted by the facts of 
history is shown by a comparison of the status of the 
church in the two periods, French and British. It was not 
until after the conquest by Great Britain in 1759, that the 
Roman Catholic church in Quebec received that legal status 
which is responsible for giving to it a control without 
parallel among the other Roman Catholic churches of the 
world. 

This unique success is all the more remarkable when it is 
remembered that it was practically accomplished within the 
first half century of British rule; and this notwithstanding 
the policy of the British government to establish the Church 
of England, " both in principles and practice," in order that 
the new subjects should be brought up in those principles, 
and gradually embrace the Protestant religion. The reli- 
gious settlement at the conquest made it clear that only a 
mere toleration of the Roman Catholic religion was intended 
by the articles of capitulation and the Treaty of Paris. 

The success of the Roman Catholic church, however, 
would be difficult to explain if it were not that it was deal- 
ing with a population remarkable for its homogeneity and 
mental and moral unity. 

All through the further historical treatment of our sub- 
ject the importance of this fundamental fact must never 
131] 131 



1^2 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [^2 

be left out of account. Though the part played by social 
solidarity may not be emphasized in connection with every 
topic treated, its influence is always discernible. At bottom 
it is perhaps the most important of all those things which 
give significance to the events and conditions now about 
to be discussed. The events themselves are in many in- 
stances merely incidents which grew out of the attempts of 
the British government to adjust its policies to the existing 
social solidarity. 

The growth of the control of the Roman Catholic 
church during the British regime was an inevitable result 
of that adjustment. Almost every important adjustment 
attempted by the British reacted to increase the power of the 
church. All through this chapter the careful reader will 
not overlook this point in connection with each of the topics 
treated. In the first place, he will note how, at first, after 
the conquest, the policies of the British military government 
were aimed at conciliating a thoroughly homogeneous peo- 
ple very different in type from the rulers. His attention 
will then be caught by the fact, that after the civil authori- 
ties began their administration, friction arose over the 
attempts of the British to accustom this homogeneous popu- 
lation of French Canadians to the English legal code. He 
will perceive further how this attempt at assimilation merely 
played into the hands of the Roman Catholic clergy by 
making them the natural leaders of the people in their op- 
position to the unworkable policies of the British. After the 
French civil authorities had returned to France there were 
none but the clergy to whom the people could turn for sup- 
port against the policies they disliked. Later the reader will 
realize also how many concessions to the Roman Catholics 
had to be made by the government merely through fear lest 
the French Canadians might attempt to regain their French 
allegiance or to throw in their lot with the colonies to the 



j 33] CHURCH AND STATE UNDER BRITISH RULE ^3 

South. He will see also how inevitable it was that a Roman 
Catholic clergy should receive support from a solidly Roman 
Catholic people when the British attempted to establish the 
Church of England. He will appreciate also the influence of 
the presence of social solidarity in the separation of the 
Province of Quebec into Upper and Lower Canada and 
he will understand how inevitable it was that, after the 
extension of the franchise in 1791 had made the French 
Canadian population a highly important factor in deter- 
mining questions of state, the political and social control 
of the Roman Catholic church in Quebec should have 
reached the practically supreme position which it now holds. 
As has been said the first reaction of the British military 
government to the French Canadian population was one of 
conciliation. In fact whatever may have been the attitude 
of the New England colonists to their bitter enemies and 
trade rivals, the people of Xew France, the British Govern- 
ment on the whole was favorably disposed to its new 
subjects. It was said. 

Far from experiencing at the moment of entire conquest, the 
dreadful effects of restraint and captivity, the virtuous general 
who conquered them made them feel the mildness of the 
British Government. . . . The mildness and forbearance of 
the conqueror has so firmly attached them to Your Excellent 
Majesty that their bonds are now become indissoluble and 
that they will be every day more strongly united. 1 

Their good was not only to be desired, but it was considered 
expedient to make them appreciate British rule. Their 
loyalty or even neutrality in the event oi France at- 
tempting to regain her lost possession, was not to be lightly 
prized. 

1 Tracts Relatmg to the American Stamp Act, 1774, p. 67. 



I3 4 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [734 

During the winter following the reduction of the prov- 
ince, the people, owing to the war and the poor harvest, 
would have suffered from famine, had it not been for the 
relief fund raised from the British population. Even the 
private soldiers gave a day's pay, or a day's provision in 
the month. 1 

In Colonel Burton's report of the state of the Government 
of Three Rivers, the peasantry in the open country seemed to 
appreciate the protection they received in the free exercise 
of their religion. " They begin to feel that they are no 
longer slaves, but that they do enjoy the full benefit of that 
indulgent and benign government." . . . 2 The govern- 
ment was extremely fortunate in having two men of such 
broad sympathy with the French Canadians, as General 
Murray and General Carleton. Hillsborough in a despatch 
to Carleton of March 1768 acknowledges this: 

It gives me the greatest pleasure to acquaint you that His 
Majesty has been pleased to express the highest satisfaction in 
every part of your conduct, applauding very much your im- 
partial and dispassionate attention to the public service in 
general, as well as the humanity and tenderness you have 
shewen with regard to the peculiar circumstances and situa- 
tion of His Majesty's new subjects. ... In the meantime, His 
Majesty wishes that His Canadian subjects should be assured 
of His gracious disposition to give them every mark of his 
royal protection that they can reasonably expect. 3 

In July of the same year we find another expression of the 
Government's desire to deal justly with its new subjects, 
and to overcome some of the abuses of the administration, 

1 General Murray's report, Const. Docs., vol. i, p. 60. 

* Const. Docs., vol. i, p. 55- 

t C. A., Q. 5, pt. i, pp. 344-345- j 



!35] CHURCH AND STATE UNDER BRITISH RULE j^- 

It is His Majesty's firm purpose that every proper measure 
shall be taken to remedy those evils, and to remove the scandal 
and reproach brought upon His Majesty's Government, and 
the consequent unfavorable impressions made upon the minds 
of His Majesty's new subjects, which are the effects of the 
little attention given by the patentees in this kingdom to ability 
and integrity in the appointment of their deputies, and of the 
shameful frauds and exactions of exorbitant fees, which are 
practised, and of which you so justly complain. To this end 
I have received His Majesty's commands to lay your letters 
upon this subject before the Lords of Trade for their con- 
sideration, and to recommend such remedies as their Lordships 
shall judge best adapted to redress their grievances; and, in 
the meantime His Majesty trusts you will make some tem- 
porary arrangements to restrain the fees of office within some 
settled and certain bounds, so far as is right and the nature 
of the case will admit, and also with punishing with rigour 
those who shall be guilty of exaction or other malpractice in 
their offices. 

These letters reveal a kindly disposition on the part of the 
conquerors to lighten the burdens of the conquered and to 
leave little doubt as to the paternal regard of Downing Street 
for the Canadians. 

It was true that the Colonial Office" was suspicious of the 
influence of the clergy. Egremont makes this clear in his 
instruction to Governor Murray, of August 13, 1763, a few 
months after the signing of the Treaty of Paris- Murray 
is warned to see that the free exercise of the Roman Catho- 
lic religion, which had been granted to the inhabitants, might 
not become a sinister instrument, fostering disloyalty in the 
event of an attempt to recover the country by France. 
Not only were the priests to be watched closely, but any who 

1 Hillsborough to the Governor of Quebec, C. A., Q. 5, pt. ii, pp. 6oz- 
603. 



1 36 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [136 

busied themselves in the civil affairs were to be removed 
at once. In the fourth article of the treaty, which granted 
the " liberty of religion to the inhabitants of Canada," 
Egremont pointed out that such liberty was conditional, 
inasmuch as it was limited by a proviso, "As far as the 
laws of Great Britain will permit," followed by a rider, 
" which laws prohibit absolutely all Popish Hierarchy in 
any of the Dominions belonging to the Crown of Great 
Britain, and can only admit of a toleration of the exercise 
of that religion." 

Egremont further states that this was clearly understood 
in the negotiations of the Treaty, for the French ministers 
had proposed to insert the word comme ci dcvant in order 
that the Roman Catholic religion should continue to be 
exercised in the same manner as under their government, 
and that they did not give up this point until it was made 
clear to them that the king had not the power to tolerate 
the Roman Catholic religion in any other manner than as 
far as the laws of Great Britain permitted. 

The priests were to be watched closely. Only such priests 
and ecclesiastical persons as took the oath of allegiance were 
to be allowed to take up their residence. The emigration 
of regular clergy from France was to be discouraged, as 
well as the filling up of vacancies in the various religious 
orders. 1 

The articles of capitulation of Quebec and Montreal show 
that church matters occupied a large place in the peace nego- 
tiations. The French commander at Quebec, M. de Ramsey, 
requested that the free exercise of the Roman Catholic re- 
ligion should be preserved, and that safeguards should be 
given to the houses of the clergy, to the monasteries, and 
equally to the Bishop of Quebec. The bishop was to be per- 

1 Egremont to General Murray, C. A., Q. 1, p. 117 et seq. 



!,-] c uracil and state under British rule 1 ^j 

mitted to reside permanently in his diocese, and to be free 
to exercise his functions as the dignity of the office required. 
These conditions were granted by General Townsend until 
such time as the possession of Canada should be decided 
upon by their respective governments. 1 The negotiations, 
as carried on by General Amherst and the Marquis of 
Vaudreuil, in the final capitulation at Montreal, are more 
detailed. There was to be granted free exercise of the 
Roman Catholic religion, which would permit the people to 
assemble in the churches and to frequent the sacraments 
without any interference. The request, that the people be 
obliged, by the English Government, to pay their tithes to 
the priest, was " left to the King's pleasure." The clergy, 
including the chaplain, priests, curates and missionaries, were 
" to continue with an entire liberty the exercise and func- 
tions of their cures in the parishes of the towns and country." 
The grand vicars were to be permitted to administer 
a diocese during a vacancy in an episcopal see, and to 
be free to reside or visit in any parish. The extravagant 
demand that, in case Canada should remain under the 
British, the French king should retain the right to name the 
bishop was refused, together with the more moderate one, 
asking that he should always be of the Roman Catholic 
communion. The bishop, however, was given the right to 
establish new parishes and to provide for the rebuilding of 
his cathedral and his episcopal palace. He might reside 
in any parish, and visit in any part of his diocese with ac- 
customed ceremonies. All the jurisdiction was to be ac- 
corded him, which had been exercised by his predecessors 
under the French regime, except that he might be called 
upon to take the oath of fidelity to do nothing contrary to 
the service of his British Majesty. 

1 Articles of capitulation agreed on between General Townsend and 
M. de Ramsey, Commander of Quebec. (Annual Register, 1759, p. 247, 
art. vi ; cf. Const. Does., vol. i, p. 6.) 



138 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [^g 

Among the religious orders, the nuns were to be pre- 
served in their constitution and privileges. They were ex- 
empted from lodging any military officers or men, and to be 
afforded sufficient protection. These privileges were not to 
extend to the male orders of the Jesuits, Rccollets and the 
house of priests of St. Sulpice at Montreal, until the king's 
pleasure should be known. All their real and personal prop- 
erty, however, was to be secured to them. Passage was to 
be provided in British vessels for all who wished to return 
to France, and they were to be allowed to dispose of or to 
take with them their chattels. 1 The report of General 
Murray showed the church to be well organized and pros- 
perous. Of the total 7,985,470 acres of land granted in 
Canada by the French king, 2,043,790, or 25.6 per cent, 
was in possession of the church and religious orders. When 
it is remembered that nearly twenty-five per cent of all 
the land in France was in possession of the clergy, this 
proportion does not seem so large. 2 The Jesuits were the 
largest owners, having 881,695 acres. 3 The bishop had 
a stipend of 10,000 livres, 8,000 of which came from an 
endowment of Louis XIV, together with a grant of 2,000 
livres from the clergy of France. He had no estate except 
his palace at Quebec, and a small property adjoining it. 

The religious communities included the chapter of Quebec, 
consisting of one dean and twelve canons, the mendicant 
order of Recollets numbering ten; the Seminary of Quebec, 
an institute preparing students for orders with a staff of five; 
and the Jesuits, who numbered nine, and were in charge of 
two Indian missions. The communities of women included 

1 Articles of capitulation between General Amherst and Marquis de 
Vaudreuil. Annual Register, 1760, p. 222, arts, xxvii-xxxv; cf. Const. 
.Docs., vol. i, pp. 25-26. 

' Duruy, p. 513. 

S C. A., Q. 56, pt. iii, p. 833- 



J 39] CHURCH AND STATE UNDER BRITISH RULE 1 ^g 

those in the convent of the Hotel-Dieu, the General Hospital, 
as well as Les Filles de la Congregation ; the two former 
being engaged in the care of the sick, while the latter did 
educational work among girls. 

For four years after the articles of capitulation were 
signed the Province was under military rule and relation- 
ships between the French Canadians and the English offi- 
cials were on the whole cordial. Trouble began in earnest 
when the civil authorities took the government over in 1764 
and commenced to apply the provisions of English law. 
It had been hoped that the English law would prove even 
a greater factor in anglicizing Canada than had the con- 
ciliatory policies outlined in the last few pages. Edwin 
Burke was convinced of this, and stated in the British House 
of Commons, " In order to make Canada a secure posses- 
sion of the British government, you have only to bind the 
people to you, by giving them your laws. Give them Eng- 
lish liberty — give them an English constitution and then, 
whether they speak English or French, whether they go to 
mass, or attend our own communion, you will render them 
valuable and useful subjects of Great Britain." l 

A general system of justice and administration had been 
established under the military rulers Amherst and Murray 
in 1760, and had been approved by the king through the 
Earl of Egremont, secretary of state, in a despatch to Gen- 
eral Amherst, December 12, 1761. 2 

During this period of British military rule, the policy 
as has been said, was that of conciliation. Full consider- 
ation was given to the habits and customs of the new sub- 

1 Cavendish, p. 289. 

1 Commission as judge to Jacques AUier by Murray. Const. Docs., 
vol. i, p. 30; Placard from His Excellency General Amherst, ibid., p. 
32; Ordinance Establishing Military Courts, ibid., p. 35. 



l 4 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [140 

jects in the four years during which the final possession of 
Canada was still in doubt. By the Treaty of Paris, how- 
ever, all was changed. Canada became a British dominion, 
and, as such, British institutions and law were made the 
basis for civil life. 

On August 10, 1764, Civil Government was introduced, 
and on the 17th of September in the same year, the ordin- 
ance for the establishment of civil courts came into force. 
This ordinance laid down that the judges in both criminal 
and civil cases were " to determine agreeable to equity, but 
nevertheless having regard to the laws of England as far as 
circumstances and the present situation of things would 
admit, until such time as proper ordinances for the infor- 
mation of the people can be established by the Governor 
and the Council agreeable to the laws of England." x The 
French laws and customs were to be allowed and admitted 
only in cases between new subjects, where the cause of 
action had been brought before the first of October 1764. 
Canadian advocates, Proctors, etc., were to be allowed to 
practise. 2 Both old and new subjects were to be admitted 
on juries without distinction. The legal disqualification of 
Roman Catholics as jurors, General Murray had thought ex- 
pedient to overlook until such time as the king's pleasure was 
known. 3 He justified this action on the ground that inas- 
much as " There are but two hundred Protestant subjects 
in the Province, the greatest part of which are disbanded 
soldiers of little property and mean capacity, it is thought 
unjust to exclude the new Roman Catholic subjects to sit on 
juries, as such exclusion would constitute the said two 

1 C. A., Q. 62a, pt. ii, p. 500; cf. also Ordinances Established in Civil 
Courts, Const. Docs., vol. i, p. 149. 
3 Ibid., p. 150. 
s Ibid., p. 149. 



141 ] CHURCH AXD STATE UXDER BRITISH RULE I4I 

hundred Protestants perpetual judges of the lives and prop- 
erty of, not only the eighty thousand of the new subjects, 
but likewise of all the military in the Province; besides, if 
the Canadians are not to be admitted on juries, many will 
emigrate." l Two years later, this temporary expedient, 
was ratified by the Colonial Office. The English-speaking- 
inhabitants were greatly incensed that the French-speaking 
subjects should be admitted as jurors on both grand and 
petty juries. 2 They looked upon this as an open violation 
of their most sacred laws and liberties, and as tending to the 
utter subversion of the Protestant religion. They believed 
the French-speaking subjects still to be under all the legal 
disabilities of the law of James I. 3 Protestants only were 
to be eligible for judges or justices of the peace. Owing to 
the few Protestants in the district of Three Rivers, such diffi- 
culty was experienced in securing suitable persons capable 
of acting as justices of the peace, that only two judicial 
districts, Quebec and Montreal, could be formed. 4 

The French Canadians, even although certain privileges 
had been granted, soon became dissatisfied with English law, 
and its administration. Its enforcement occasioned great 
confusion and embarrassment. Canadians were ignorant 
not only of English law and how they were to govern them- 
selves in cases where the written laws gave no directions, 
but were utter strangers to the language in which these laws 
were written. The few who formed an exception, had 
only a smattering of the language of their conquerors. 5 
The administrators of the law had almost as little knowl- 

1 C. A., Q. 62a, pt. ii. p. 500. 

' Ibid., Q. 62a, pt. ii, p. 503. 

* Ibid., Dartmouth Papers, vol. i, p. 34 et seq. 

4 Ordinance Establishing Civil Courts. Const. Docs., vol. i, p. 151. 

5 Tracts Relating to the American Stamp Act, p. 10; cf. Garneau, 
vol. ii, p. 408. 



I4 2 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [142 

edge of French. 1 In Governor Murray's observations, he 
states that, " We have not yet got one English barrister or 
attorney who understands the French law." 2 Added to this 
mutual misunderstanding, the men who were charged with 
the administration of justice, were for the most part, in- 
competent. Too little care had been exercised in the choice 
of civil officers. Such officers as secretary of the province, 
registrar, clerk of the council, commissary of the stores and 
provisions, provost marshal, etc., were given by patent to 
men of political influence in England, who let them out to 
those paying the most. Not one of those who were actual 
administrators in close contact with the people understood 
any French. 

Since these positions were without salary, the Governor 
had been instructed to allow the fees customary in the rich- 
est colonies. These, together with the exorbitant fees of the 
English lawyers, fell heavily upon the poor Canadians. 3 

Two of the leading officials, the chief justice and the 
attorney general, were so unqualified for their offices that 
they were both dismissed early in 1766. 4 They did not 
possess even a working knowledge of French ; and their 
attitude towards the law seemed to be to make it as ex- 
pensive and as cumbersome as possible for litigants. 5 The 
French Canadians fared no better at the hands of the 
magistrates. Governor Murray speaks of these as being 
chosen from " four hundred and fifty contemptible sutlers 
and traders, who were intoxicated with the unexpected 
power put into their hands, and eager to show how amply 

1 Dartmouth Papers, C. A., M. 383, p. 172. 
' C. A., Q. 624, pt. ii, p. 504. 

* Haldimand Collection, C. A., B. 8, p. I. 
*lbid.; cf. C. A., Q. 3, pp. 1-4. 

* Dartmouth Papers, C. A., M. 383, p. 172. 



I4 3] CHURCH AND STATE UNDER BRITISH RULE I43 

they possess it. The Canadian noblesse were hated because 
their birth and their behaviour entitled them to respect, 
and the peasants were abhorred because they were saved 
from the oppression they were threatened with." 1 

During the first four years following the conquest, the 
Canadians had enjoyed peace and justice under the mili- 
tary administration. " Disinterestedness and equity " were 
felt to have characterized all its decisions. The civil ad- 
ministration, on the other hand, was the embodiment of mis- 
understanding, confusion and oppression. The French 
inhabitants felt the injustice of being expected to compre- 
hend legal constructions put upon the law in a language that 
was unfamiliar to them. The English law of arrest and 
imprisonment for debt was especially offensive. Under 
the French law no action went against the person of the 
debtor until his chattels were found insufficient, and in 
the meantime, he was allowed to dispose of them to good 
advantage. 2 

The French Canadians also complained that whereas pre- 
viously their family affairs had been settled at slight ex- 
pense, now, the law had become so costly as to be ruinous 
to the debtor and of little value to the creditor. They ac- 
cused certain officials and lawyers, not only with obstructing 
justice for their own profit, but also of being open to 
bribery. 3 

The Colonial Office, in order to avoid any misunderstand- 
ing of the Proclamation made in 1763 and enforced first in 
1764, with regard to the status of the French-speaking in- 
habitants in the latter year, sent out the following instruc- 
tions to Governor Murray : 

1 C. A., B. 8, p. 1. 

1 Tracts Relating to American Stamp Act, p. 12 et seq. 

3 Haldimand Collection, C. A., B. 8, p. 121 ; cf. also Cavendish, p. 107. 



144 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [144 

There shall extend to all subjects in general the protection and 
benefit of the British laws and constitution in all cases where 
their lives and liberties are concerned. But this shall not operate 
to take away from the native inhabitants the benefit of their 
own laws and customs in cases where Titles to Land, and the 
modes of Descent, Alienation and Settlement are in question, 
nor to preclude them from any share in the Administration 
of Judicature which both in Reason and Justice they are en- 
titled to in common with the rest of our subjects. 1 

It took considerable time, however, for the Colonial Office 
to become fully aware of the general situation which 
had been created. In Hillsborough's letter to Carleton, he 
stated that " It was most unfortunate for the Colony of 
Quebec that weak, ignorant, and interested men were sent 
over to carry the Proclamation into execution, who ex- 
pounded it in the most absurd manner, oppressive and cruel 
to the last degree, to the subjects, and entirely contrary to 
the Royal Intention." 2 

In the meantime although the report of Yorke and De 
Grey to the Privy Council had stated that they were not 
subject to the incapacities, disabilities and penalties which 
Roman Catholics were under in Great Britain; 3 still the 
repeated challenge of their rights and privileges by English 
subjects, 4 the uncertainty shown by those in authority with 
regard to these rights, 5 the confusion of the laws, the dilatory 
proceedings of the courts in a language they did not under- 
stand ; together with the great expense attending them, 8 

1 Dartmouth Papers, C. A., M. 383, vol. i. p. 50. 

2 C. A., Q. 5, pt. i, p. 344- 

s Haldimand Collection, C. A., B. 8, p. 12; cf. Memoires sur le Canada, 
p. 75; A Pol. and Hist. Account of L. C, p. 115. 

4 Dartmouth Papers, C. A., vol. i, p. 34. 

5 C. A., Q. 63, pt. ii, p. 310. 

' Maseres, Collections of several commissions and other public instru- 
ments, etc., p. 50. 



145] CHURCH AND STATE UNDER BRITISH RULE i^ 

all contributed to develop and to foster in the Canadians 
a feeling of perplexity and alarm. Such references as 
these did much to make them apprehensive both of their 
political and their religious status in the future. 

This apprehension was still further increased by the 
absence of civil leaders. The volume of emigration to 
France after the conquest without doubt was small. It in- 
cluded, however, a fairly large proportion of the leaders ; 
the former government officials, the professional men and 
the wealthier merchants. These, however together with 
certain of the noblesse appear to have been the only persons 
who accompanied the troops to France. General Gage re- 
ported in 1762 that " no persons have left this Government 
to go to France, except Those who held Military and Civil 
Employments under the French king. ... I perceive none 
preparing to leave the Government, or that seemed inclined 
to do so, unless it be a few Ladys whose Husbands are 
already in France. . . . " * 

It is clear that the emigration after the conquest was 
drawn almost altogether from the influential classes in the 
towns and cities ; the country population being little ef- 
fected. 2 The result was that the French Canadians who 
had been nurtured under a paternal government, and who 
were most dependent upon the leadership of those in a 
higher station, were suddenly left without their accustomed 
leaders. At the same time they were subjected to all the 
perplexity and confusion already outlined in this chapter, 
which attended the attempt of the British authorities to 
introduce English law and customs. The outcome of this 
situation was that a strong feeling of fear was developed 
among the French Canadians. The belief developed that 
the Proclamation of October 7, 1763, was aimed. 

1 Const. Docs., vol. i, p. 72. 

2 C. A., Q. 2, pp. 08-09. 



146 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [146 

At once to abolish all the usages and customs of Canada, with 
the rough hand of conquerer rather than with the true spirit 
of a lawful Sovereign, and not so much to extend the pro- 
tection and benefit of His English laws to His new subjects, 
by securing their lives, liberties and properties with more cer- 
tainty than in former times, as to impose new, unnecessary and 
arbitrary rules, especially in the Titles to Land, and in the 
modes of Descent, Alienation and Settlement, which tend to 
confound and subvert rights, instead of supporting them. 1 

In an " Ordinance for quieting People in their Posses- 
sions " ... of November 6, 1764, it was stated that, " It 
appears right and necessary, to quiet the Minds of the Peo- 
ple, in Regard to their Possessions, and to remove every 
doubt respecting the same." 2 The uncertainty as to the 
future of religion increased still further this element of fear. 
The French Canadians acknowledged gratefully the fact 
that they enjoyed " The same happiness and tranquillity 
in their religion," as under the old regime 3 but there was 
grave doubt as to whether, with the increase of the English 
population, the free exercise of their religion might not be 
gradually withdrawn. The attitude of some of the English- 
speaking subjects tended to increase this feeling.' 1 Cramahe, 
in writing on this point, to Hillsborough, remarks that " they 
have at times been likewise alarmed upon this head by the 
indiscreet talk of some individuals amongst us." 

The clergy, especially the better trained among them, had 

1 Report of Attorney and Solicitor General regarding the Civil Gov- 
ernment of Quebec. Dartmouth Papers, C. A., M. 383, vol. i, p. 172 
et seq. 

3 Const. Docs., vol. i, p. 166; cf. also Ordinances made for the Prov- 
ince of Quebec, by the Governor and Council, etc., p. 18. 

8 C. A., B. 8, p. 121. 

4 Dartmouth Papers, C. A., vol. i, pp. 31, art. vii, 34 et seq. 
8 C. A., Q. 8, p. 162. 



I47 ] CHURCH AND STATE UNDER BRITISH RULE 1 ^y 

been largely drawn from France. 1 After the conquest their 
further immigration was discouraged. This soon led to 
a lack of priests to fill the vacancies and occasioned further 
anxiety on the part of the inhabitants. Murray writes in 
his letter to Halifax, " They must certainly have conceived 
some uneasiness at the words of the treaty, and allege their 
fears are not for themselves but for their children, if no 
provision is made to supply the priesthood, as vacancies 
happen." ~ 

It was natural for the Canadians under this social pres- 
sure of fear to appeal to their own native leaders. Under 
the French regime, these would have been the officials, pro- 
fessional classes, and the wealthier merchants. Now only 
the less influential of the last two classes remained. There 
was still, however, another powerful group of leaders, the 
clergy, who up to this time, had never been recognized by 
the Canadians as possible leaders in securing greater justice. 
For a century previous to the conquest, the king and Su- 
perior Council had sought rather to protect the people 
through limiting the privileges and prerogatives of the clergy 
than through extending them. Their great influence in 
the state, had been used so largely to retain their ecclesias- 
tical position that the people had not looked to them for 
civil leadership. 

In the absence of their accustomed leaders the fear of 
losing their laws and religion under the early British admin- 
istration, however, compelled the people to turn to the clergy 
for leadership. In this crisis the people and the clergy had 
much in common. 

The French laws and customs were dear to the hearts of 
the Canadians. The legalizing of the tithes meant much 
to the clergy. The free exercise of religion was held of 

1 Const. Docs., vol. i, p. 54. a C. A., Q. 1, pp. 251-252. 



I4 8 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [148 

supreme importance by both priest and people. The grow- 
ing discontent proved the clergy's opportunity. Through 
a new alliance with the people and by championing the 
cause of the people in the struggle to retain their laws and 
customs the clergy not only obtained, the right to tithes, 
but also gained tremendously in unity and control. 

The fear of French influence and intrigue soon further 
narrowed this new leadership practically to Canadian-born 
clergy. This followed the action of the British Govern- 
ment, which in order to minimize the danger from France, 
excluded all foreign ecclesiastics of the House of Bourbon 
from Canada. In this way it was hoped to prevent the 
church from becoming a centre for arousing French senti- 
ment in Canada. 1 

As early as 1768, Hillsborough had written to Carleton 
approving of his plan of giving every preference to the 
Canadian-born clergy, and instructing him to discourage 
" the introduction of foreign priests," 2 as the government 
would soon consider their complete exclusion. 3 While this 
plan was strongly approved by the officials in Canada they 
saw at the same time that it was most likely to prejudice 
the French-born clergy in favor of a return to French rule. 4 

1 " I am persuaded that the most effectual way of securing the 
attachment of the Canadians is that of preventing by all possible means 
every communication or connection with France, or persons who are 
influenced in favor of that country, and therefore it behooves the 
king's servants to be watchful of their conduct, upon every occasion 
and to act with great firmness whenever any discovery should be made 
of even an attempt inconsistent with their entire separation." (Sydney 
to Haldimand. C. A., B. 45, p. 130; cf. Egerton, A Short History of 
British Colonial Policy, p. 236.) 

2 C. A., Q. 4. p. 321; Q. 5, pt. i, p. 345; Q. 12, A., p. 4. 

8 Ibid. 

* " It is not indeed improbable that the French clergy, jealous of their 
Canadian brethren, for whom they have always had a thorough con- 



149] CHURCH AND STATE UNDER BRITISH RULE I49 

The desire of the British officials to minimize the in- 
fluence of those of the clergy who were most closely at- 
tached in sympathy, to France and the old regime, had the 
effect, in the end of strengthening the leadership of the 
Canadian-born clergy over the people- This effort, to lesson 
the influence of the sympathizers with the old regime was 
particularly strong after the American Revolutionary War. 1 
The action of the Catholic clergy during the American 
Revolutionary War on the whole had been highly commend- 
able. It was thought, however, by some that when the 
part France had taken in the war became known that a 
change in the attitude of some of the clergy became notice- 
able. Haldimand wrote to Germain that, 

However sensible I am of the good conduct in general during 
the invasion of the province in the year 1775 I am well aware 
that since France was known to take a part in the contest, and 
since the address of the Count D'Estaing and a letter of Mons. 
de la Fayette to the Canadians and Indians has been circulated 
in the province, many of the priests changed their opinions 
and in the case of another invasion would, I am afraid, adopt 
another system of conduct. 2 

The entrance of France into the war naturally had awakened 
hopes in some members of the clergy that Canada might be 
returned to France at the Treaty of Paris. 3 The disap- 

tempt and whom they now see likely to become in time possessed of 
every benefice in their church . . . would be desirous to bring about 
a change." (Cramhe to Hillsborough, C. A., Q. 8, p. 162.) 

1 Haldimand to Germain, Haldimand Papers, C. A., B. 56, p. 76; 
cf. C. A., Q. 16, pt. ii, p. 689. 

a C. A., B. 54, p. 340. 

" I observe great disappointment on the part of some of the clergy, 
on occasion of Canada's not returning by the Treaty of Peace, under 
the Dominion of France. I have found a greater reluctance on Mr. 
Montgolfier to part with the two French priests mentioned in my 



150 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [t^q 

pointment of these led Haldemand to believe that it was 
" more than ever incumbent upon the government in the 
country to be vigilant, against the machinations of France 
and the American Congress." 1 

In the case of the French-born cure De la Valiniere 
Haldimand had taken drastic action in ordering his arrest 
and deportation. 2 In the spring of 1783 two French priests, 
attired in " secular habit " had found passage on one of the 
merchant vessels and on their arrival had been permitted 
by the bishop to proceed to Montreal. 3 As they had failed 
to report themselves to the governor, notwithstanding the 
request of the bishop and citizens of Montreal that they be 
allowed to become attached to the Seminary, Haldimand 
insisted upon their immediate departure for Europe. 4 In 
order to prevent any such recurrence the governor an- 
nounced " His Majesty's determination and orders relative 
to the admission of foreign ecclesiastics into the province 
and the total exclusion of any priests from France or other 
countries under the dominion of the House of Bourbon." 

This measure did not aim at reducing the number of the 
clergy, for the government in response to petitions from the 
people praying that priests might be brought from Europe," 

public letter than I had reason to expect from his former good conduct 
or the circumstances of the case. The war has ended so unfortunately 
for us that people begin to think slightly of our power, and it is the 
general opinion that if France had insisted upon it Canada would have 
been added to them." (Haldimand to Lord North, C. A., B. 56, p. 77.) 

1 C. A., B. 56, p. 76; cf. ibid., B. 56, p. 97; C. A., Q. 79, pt. i, p. 204. 

1 C. A., Q. 16, p. 2, pp. 689, 690; cf. ibid., p. 175; C. A., Q. 17, pt. i, 
p. 80. 

* C. A., B. 56, p. 75- 

4 C. A., B. 56, pp. 75-76, 78, 96; C. A., Q. 45, pt. ii, p. 512. 

5 C. A., Q. 23, p. 370; cf. C. A., Q. 45, pt ii, p. 512. 

8 " We are, Most Gracious Sovereign, in most urgent need of priests 
to carry on the work of the seminaries and missions of our province ; 



r^l] CHURCH AND STATE UNDER BRITISH RULE icj 

had authorized the admission of " any number of eccles- 
iastics that were necessary for supplying the vacant parishes 
in Canada and such other persons as they might judge 
proper for the tuition of their children, from any country 
not connected with the House of Bourbon." l The offer 
made by the government to secure Savoyard priests although 
at first refused by the bishop, 2 was accepted later and a 
few priests were sent out to Canada at the government's 
expense. 3 

The number of foreign-born clergy entering the country 
must have been small for, notwithstanding the number of 
inadequately prepared students who received orders, 4 con- 
tinuous complaint was made of the scarcity of priests- 
Bishop Hubert wrote to Cardinal Antonelli in 1788, 

directors and professors of this class, and indeed of any other, are 
lacking. Our colleges are deserted; from this want arises ignorance, 
and from ignorance, moral depravity. Submissive and loyal, this people 
hope to receive from Your Royal Clemency permission to bring from 
Europe persons of this class." (Petition of the Roman Catholic Citi- 
zens to the King, C. A., Q. 62a, pt. i, p. 298; cf. C. A., Q. 42, p. 138.) 

l C. A., B. 45. p. 130. 

a C. A., Q. 45, pt. ii, p. 512. 

8 " In consequence of the application made to the court of Turin, at 
your desire, for four Savoyard priests to fill the vacant benefices in 
Canada, Messrs. Majson, Bejson, du Clos and Bosson have arrived 
here, with the fullest testimonies of their life and attention to the 
duties of their sacred functions, and they now proceed to Quebec in 
the Amazon store ship, in which a passage has been provided for them 
and the master paid for sustaining them on the voyage. The incomes 
promised them, in consequence of your letter, is £200 a year each, at 
least, and they have received according to that allowance from their 
departure from Savoy to the 20th of this month, the day of their em- 
barkation. You will only have to pay them from that day until you 
put them in possession of their benefices." (Shelbourne to Haldimand, 
C. A., B. 45, p. 22; cf. ibid., pp. 119, 130; Q. 42, p. 138; C. A., B. 54, 
p. 342.) 

4 C. A., B. 54, P- 34i. 



152 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [T52 

I have observed on my pastoral visitations the firm faith and 
attachment of our people to our Holy Religion, but it is to be 
feared that this good attitude on their part may be weakened 
by the scarcity of clergy, who are not sufficiently numerous to 
overtake the regular instructions of the people on account of 
the large territory to be traversed. In the diocese of Quebec 
there are only one hundred and forty priests, which is quite 
insufficient for an immense population which is so scattered 
as this is. Most of the priests are Canadian, and soon all will 
be, as the British Ministry does not permit the admission of 
European clergy, least of all Frenchmen. Its opposition on 
this point, manifested on several occasions, confines the diocese 
to priests which it can train itself, and this is a very mediocre 
resource. 1 

So successful had the British policy of exclusion been 
that the report of the Catholic clergy for 1790 showed that 
of the total of 149 clergy including the bishops, 132 or 
88.7 per cent were native born. 2 The rigid enforcement 
of these regulations, it is true, was soon relaxed. From 
time to time a few French-born priests were admitted but 
under such restrictions that they never again became the 
dominating factor among the clergy. 3 

1 C. A., M. 128, p. 348 et seq. 

'C.A., Q. 48, pt. ii, p. 608. 

s "Application has recently been made to me on the part of the Roman 
Catholic Bishop of Quebec concerning the further admission of French 
Emigrant Priests into this Province; from which I understand that in 
consequence of my letter (No. 14) of the 20th of October last your 
Grace has refused Passports to some of the Emigrant Clergy who 
were desirous of coming over here. . . . Upon this subject it is but 
justice to observe that the admission of any considerable number of 
the Emigrant Clergy into the Province can hardly fail of interfering 
with the views of those Canadians who seek ecclesiastical preferment 
for themselves or their children, and on this consideration alone (were 
there no other) I should think it my duty to recommend that very few 
more than those who have already obtained Passports be hereafter 



153] CHURCH AND STATE UXDER BRITISH RULE ^3 

This policy, although primarily political, was of far- 
reaching consequence to the unity of the clergy and the con- 
trol of the church. The exclusion of French ecclesiastics 
cut off all contact with the Gallican church and the revolu- 
tionary movements in France. The dominant element 
among the clergy for the first time became Canadian- Thus 
the church and the people were compelled to depend upon 
a native clergy, who had practically no contact with the 
outside world, and whom the bishop considered " a mediocre 
source." 1 This opinion which seems to have been shared 
by other writers. Murray in describing the clergy wrote 
that " most of the dignified among them are French, the 
resr Canadians and are in general of the lower class of 
the people." 2 Haldimand pointed out that " the Noblesse 
and the better class of Canadians were never fond of em- 
bracing an ecclesiastical life." 3 

One of the results of this policy of minimizing the in- 
fluence of adherents of the old regime was that the rivalry 
between the French and Canadian-born clergy and the con- 
tempt of the former for the latter, which had been a source 
of weakness, was overcome. 4 The native clergy, though 

admitted. ... In a political point of view I may add, it is perhaps to 
be apprehended, notwithstanding the present situation of affairs, that 
the introduction of these persons may, at some future period, become 
the means of forming a Bond of Connexion between the Canadas and 
France, or at least that it will prevent the remembrance of their for- 
mer connexion from dying away in the minds of the Canadians. (Pres- 
cott to Portland, 1799, C. A., Q. 79, pt. i, pp. 204-205; cf. C. A., G. 9, 
p. 231.) 

1 " The priests of this country are generally good. They all wear 
clerical garments, and celebrate Mass every day. Little gross and 
scandalous vice is found amongst them : they are attached to their 
bishops, who in turn are attached to them." (Bishop Hubert to Car- 
dinal Antonelli, C. A., M. 128, p. 349 et seq. 

1 Const. Docs., vol. i, p. 59. 

5 C. A., B. 54, p. 341 ; C A., Q. 8, p. 163. 

* C. A., Q. 8, p. 162. 



154 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [^ 

less learned, through their more intimate knowledge of the 
habitants gradually exerted larger and larger influence over 
them, a fact which became of immense importance later 
when the people were granted full political rights. 

The church, however, could never have gained its position 
of authority after the conquest had it not been for the 
legal status granted to it by the British government. This 
was accomplished very largely through the passing of the 
Quebec Act in 1774, and the Constitutional Act in 1791. 

In the royal proclamation of 1763 promises were held 
out that as soon as conditions warranted, legislation would 
be forthcoming to meet the needs of the new colony. 1 As 
early as 1770, Hillsborough wrote to Cramache, " I have 
the satisfaction to acquaint you that the affairs of the prov- 
ince of Quebec are now under consideration of His Ma- 
jesty's servants and that there is a prospect that such ar- 
rangements will speedily be made as will (I trust) lead to 
the removal of those difficulties and obstructions in the 
government of it which have been so long complained of." 2 
In 1773, the situation appears to have become exceedingly 
difficult, for Cramache wrote to Dartmouth, " I most sin- 
cerely wish for the good of the king's service and the 
happiness of the people matters may be soon brought to a 
final conclusion." 5 

Various petitions and memorials to the king and ministers 
from both the old and new subjects had been forwarded to 
London. The old subjects prayed for the granting of a 
" general assembly," 4 and the new subjects for having 

1 Const. Docs., vol. i, pp. 1 19-123. 

* C. A., Q. 7, P- 267; cf. C. A., Q. 8, p. 53- 

• C. A., Q. 9, p. 51 ; cf. C. A., Q. 9, P. 157. 

4 Const. Docs., vol. i, pp. 347-348; cf. ibid., pp. 291-292, 340-351, 351-352. 



155] CHURCH ASD STATE UNDER BRITISH RULE I ^ 

their " ancient laws, privileges and customs restored " and 
their province extended " to its former boundaries." l 

The task of the British legislators in framing an Act 
which would satisfy at once both the English and French 
Canadians was difficult indeed- They realized that it would 
be impossible to stamp out the Roman Catholic religion. 
Not only had they the advice of the best legal authorities 
but they had two precedents to guide them in dealing with 
a Roman Catholic population namely, Ireland and Minorca. 
" Ireland showed clearly that Catholicism could not be 
stamped out in Canada even with a population of Catholics 
of five to two, much less five hundred to one as in Canada. 
Minorca on the other hand where a lenient policy had been 
in force with a Roman Catholic people showed that even 
when England had been at war on two different occasions 
with Spain the people of Minorca, although Spaniards, had 
remained loyal to England." ' 

At the time therefore when the hand of the state was be- 
ing forced by external pressure, when the fear of France 
coupled with that of the American colonies made the loyalty 
or neutrality of the French Canadians essential to the British 
at any price, the policy of conceding to the French Canadians 
their " ancient laws, privileges, and custom?." was not only 
what " benevolence and humanity recommended " but also 
it was "consonant with the soundest policy." 3 

It would be unfair to the British Parliament to suggest 
that in the Quebec Act political expediency was a larger 
determining factor than " benevolence and humanity." 
Edwin Burke in his speech in Parliament while strongly 
opposed to the boundaries of Quebec being extended to 

1 Const. Docs., vol. i. pp. 355-356; cf. ibid., pp. 293-294. 358-359- 

* Tracts, Am. S. A., p. 19. 

1 Ibid.; cf. Dartmouth to Cramahe, C. A., Q. 8, p. 221. i 



156 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [jtf 

take in any English-speaking subjects, vigorously main- 
tained, 

There is but one healing Catholic principle of toleration which 
ought to find favor in this House. It is wanted not only in 
our colonies, but here. The thirsty earth of our country is 
gasping and gaping, and crying out for the healing shower from 
heaven. The noble Lord has told you of the right of those 
people by treaty ; but I consider the right of conquest so little 
and the right of human nature so much, that the former had 
had little consideration with me. I look upon the people of 
Canada as coming, by the dispensation of God, under the 
British government. I would have us govern it, in the same 
manner as the all-wise disposition of Providence would have 
us govern it. We know he suffers the sun to shine upon the 
righteous and the unrighteous ; and we ought to suffer all 
classes, without distinction, to enjoy equally the right of wor- 
shipping God, according to the light He has been pleased to 
give them. 1 

Fears were expressed and with some justification that the 
bill would establish " the popish religion " in Quebec. 2 The 
question as to whether or not the clergy should be upheld 
in their legal right to tithes as they were under the French 
regime occasioned much debate. It is true no request had 
come from the French Canadians asking that this privilege 
be incorporated in the bill 3 although it appears to have been 
generally known among the people at the time that they 
were at liberty to pay or refuse to pay their tithes as they 
liked. 4 Carleton, on being questioned in Parliament ex- 

1 Cavendish, p. 222. 
7 Ibid., p. 251. 

3 Maseres, . . . Proceedings of the . . . Protestant Inhabitants . . . of 
Quebec . . . to Obtain an House of Assembly . . . , p. 180. 

4 Ibid. 



157] CHURCH AND STATE UNDER BRITISH RULE ^y 

pressed the opinion that during this period the tithes were 
being paid as well as formerly. 1 

After much discussion the bill, however was finally passed 
by a vote of fifty-six to twenty, and received the royal assent 
June 22. 1774. The Quebec Act has sometimes been called 
the magna charta of French Canadian liberties for it secured 
to the Roman Catholics the right to " have, hold, and enjoy, 
the free Exercise of the Religion of the Church of Rome," 
and to their clergy the right to " hold, receive, and enjoy, 
their accustomed Dues and Rights, with respect to such 
Persons only as shall profess the said Religion. 2 Moreover 
the Act substituted for the " statute passed in the First Year 
of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth or any other Oaths," a 
special oath of allegiance freed from any religious require- 
ments. 3 The new subjects, the religious Orders and Com- 
munities only excepted, were also to be permitted to hold 
and enjoy their Property and Possessions, together with all 
Customs and Usages relative thereto, and all other Civil 
Rights consistent with their allegiance. 4 

The concessions granted in the Quebec Act to the French 
Canadians, and more especially to their clergy in legalizing 

1 Cavendish, p. 103. 

*The Quebec Act, Anno Decimo Quarto Georgii III, Regis, cap. 
lxxxiii, cited in Const. Docs., vol. i, p. 403. 

8 '" I, A. B., do sincerely promise and swear, That I will be faithful, 
and bear true allegiance, to His Majesty King George, and him will 
defend to the utmost of my power against all traitorous Conspiracies, 
and Attempts whatsoever which shall be made against His Person, 
Crown and Dignity; and I will do my utmost Endeavor to disclose 
and make known to His Majesty, His Heirs and Successors all Trea- 
sons, and traitorous Conspiracies, and Attempts which I shall know to 
be against Him, or any of them ; and all this I do swear without any 
Equivocation, mental Evasion, or secret Reservation, and renouncing 
all Pardons and Dispensations from any power or Person whomsoever 
to the contrary. So Help Me God." (Ibid.) 

* The Quebec Act, Const. Docs., vol. i, pp. 403-404. 



158 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [158 

tithes, were very possibly a bid, in part at least, for the 
loyalty and support of the French Canadians, in event of 
difficulties with France or the American Colonies. 

When the break did come the following year the re- 
sponse from the clergy was most complete and the whole 
weight of their influence was thrown on the side of British 
rule. 1 It is said the hierarchy from the very beginning of 
British rule " foresaw that religion might profit by this 
change of masters " and this may have accounted in part 
for the attitude taken. 2 In 1759 the bishop addressed a 
letter to the parish priests giving them detailed instruction 
as to the prudence expected of those whose parishes might 
fall into the enemy's hands. 3 The following year the 
bishop wrote to Briand, the vicar general, " You cannot 
too earnestly enjoin upon the parish priests to be as prudent 
as possible. We must not meddle with temporal affairs. 
Our sole concern should be spiritual and then I am persuaded 
that General Murray will be satisfied." 4 

There could be no neutral ground, however, for the 
Roman Catholic church in the American Revolutionary War 
even if it had not been favorable to British rule. The New 
England colonists were looked upon by the hierarchy, as 
standing for the antithesis of Roman Catholicism and as the 
most blasphemous of the enemies of the church. Bishop 
Briand in his famous mandcment " To Rebellious Subjects 
during the American War " upbraids them and laments the 
fact, 

if God had not exercised His mercy, you would shortly have 

1 Tracts, Am. S. A., p. 72. 

2 Can. and its Prov., vol. ii, New France ii, p. 442. 
s Ibid., p. 441. 

4 Ibid. 



I59 ] CHURCH AND STATE UNDER BRITISH RULE i$g 

become apostates, schismatics, and pure heretics, Protestants 
of a Protestantism the furthest removed from the Roman 
religion, and its crudest enemy. For no other sect has per- 
secuted the Romans like that of the Bostonians, no other has 
outraged the priests, profaned the churches, and the relics of 
the saints as it has, no other has attacked the confidence of 
Catholics in the protection of the Saints and of the Holy 
Mother of God with more horrible blasphemies as it has 
done. . . . No, my brethren, there is no doubt that very 
soon by their lies, by their calumnious tricks against your 
religion, by their deceitful sophistries, they would, not only 
have weaned you from that faith, but I do doubt not that they 
would even have finally succeeded in making you deplore the 
lot of your fathers, and that of your early years. You would 
soon have been heard chanting canticles of thanksgiving for 
having been delivered from the alleged superstitions of popery, 
and for having finally discovered the beautiful truth. 1 

Coupled with this distrust and hatred of the " Romans " 
for the " Bostonians," however, was the hierarchy's satis- 
faction with British rule. The bishop in the same mcmde- 
ment makes this clear when he reproaches the people for 
their ingratitude. 

1 Mandements aux sujets rebelles durant la guerre Americaine, Man- 
dements, vol. ii, p. 269 ct seq. There is further written in the same pas- 
toral letter: "No, my dear brethren, the colonists in no way desired 
your welfare; it was by no means a fraternal affection that brought 
them to this colony ; it was not at all to procure for you a liberty 
which you were already enjoying so advantageously, and which was 
about to become still more glorious, that a handful of men, neither 
warriors nor men instructed in military science, came to possess them- 
selves of your farms and of the undefended Cities of Montreal and 
Three Rivers. It was because of a very different principle, on which, 
if you understood it thoroughly, would cover you with shame and 
disgrace, one which, if you could penetrate all its import, all its malice 
and treachery, would arouse you to rage and fury against these per- 
fidious enemies whom you have had the folly to call by the name of 
brothers, friends, and 'our people'." Ibid. 



160 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [160 

Your rebellion . . . has already merited exemplary and rigor- 
ous chastisements on the part of a prince from whom you have, 
up to the present, received only signal marks of a generosity 
extraordinarily rare in a powerful conqueror, which none of 
us expected, generosity which has made you aware of the 
change of government only by a happier state of existence. 
No one, at the time of your revolt, felt any unhappy results 
from the late war. Whatever disorder it had caused at first 
in your affairs, was not only repaired, but you had besides 
greatly augmented your fortunes, and your possessions had 
become considerably more lucrative and more valuable. You 
had then, only cause to thank God for your lot. Duty and 
gratitude should have attached you inviolably to your sover- 
eign, to His authority, and to His glory; He had the right to 
claim it, He even expected it with a certain degree of as- 
surance ; and he would not have been deceived, if you had 
followed the dictates of gratitude and the principles of your 
religion. 

It was on this principle that, to constrain rebellious prov- 
inces to duty, and to bring them back to obedience, he was not 
afraid to withdraw from among us the troops which were 
believed to be no longer necessary to assure your submission, 
which indeed, one might with some foundation, believe to be 
engraved on your minds and hearts. It was expected, and 
reasonably that you would be eagerly assuming the interests 
and the defences of your beneficient king, of a Court and a 
Parliament entirely devoted to you, and completely occupied 
with plans to make you happy, rich and flourishing. What 
must have been the surprise of England when she heard of 
your defection, of your disobedience, of your revolt, and of 
your alliance with rebellious spirits. But what also must be 
her anger and indignation towards you. Have you not reason 
to fear that her mistaken kindness will turn into wrath, and 
that she will overwhelm you with punishment in place of the 
favors which she has heaped upon you up to the present, and 
which she was ready to accord in a still more extensive special 
and peculiar manner. Perhaps if the display of a part of her 



l6l] CHURCH AXD STATE UNDER BRITISH RULE J ( il 

formidable forces had opened your eyes and recalled you to 
your duty, she would have excused you on account of your 
ignorance and simplicity, on account of the impositions, the 
tricks and falsehoods, the shams, the threats, and the false 
promises, preposterous and without basis, which your insidious 
enemies have employed to seduce you, to pervert you. and to 
engage you in their iniquitous designs, not through love for 
you and your well-being, but through envy and jealousy of the 
preferences which were being accorded to you. 1 

The bishop still further used his episcopal office in sup- 
port of the British cause, for some of the French Canadian 
rebels were compelled to do penance for their political of- 
fence. It is recorded that on the occasion of the anniversary 
of the deliverance of Quebec from the American troops, the 
bishop personally conducted the great thanksgiving service 
when. ''Eight unfortunate Canadians who had sided with 
the rebels were present, with ropes about their necks, and 
were forced to do penance before all in the church, and 
crave pardon of their God, Church and King." 2 

The loyalty of the hierarchy and especially of Bishop 
Briand in this crisis was appreciated by the British govern- 
ment, and greatly strengthened the control of the Roman 
Catholic church. Numerous instances of this appreciation 
might be mentioned. The following letter from Sydney 
to Hamilton, expressing regret at the resignation of Bishop 
Briand, is a good illustration. 

From the long and faithful services of Mons. Briand, super- 
intendent of the Romish Church in the province of Quebec, 
and the unblemished character which he possesses, you can- 
not be surprised the king accepted of his resignation with 
concern, especially upon observing the reasons which produced 

1 Mandements, vol. ii, p. 269 et seq. 

2 Revolutionary Letters, pp. 66-67. 



162 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [162 

it. His Majesty has in consequence commanded me to signify 
to you His Royal approbation that the Reverend Louis Philippe 
D'Esgly, should succeed to office in full confidence he will fol- 
low the virtuous example of Mons. Briand. 1 

It is true the British Government for a time did not officially 
recognize the " Superintendent of the Roman Catholic 
church" as bishop; nevertheless so satisfactory appears to 
have been the understanding between the government and 
the bishop that he was permitted to attend to the affairs 
of the church, even in matters where the formal consent of 
the government had not been received. 2 

However grateful the Government may have felt toward 
the hierarchy, it had no intention of changing a policy of 
mere toleration, to one of building up the Roman Catholic 
church. On the contrary the American Revolutionary 
War had still further confirmed its policy of establishing 
the Church of England as the national church. 

1 C. A., Q. 24, p. 216; cf. Murray to Shelbourne, C. A., Q. I, p. 261. 

2 " I have had the satisfaction to find that Lord Dorchester, Gover- 
nor General of the Province, in the name of His Britannic Majesty, 
enters most graciously into my views. . . . For these reasons, after- 
thanking Heaven for this, I take the liberty to implore your Eminence 
to intercede with His Holiness that he may crown this good work in 
permitting by an Apostolic Brief that Messire Charles Francois Bailly 
de Messein be consecrated as my coadjutor, under such title 'in parti- 
bus infidelium ' as it may please His Holiness to bestow upon him. . . , 
It will, perhaps, be a cause of surprise to the Roman Curia to note the 
absence of a formal document attesting the consent of the English 
Government in favor of M. Bailly. There will, perhaps, be found in 
our manner of proceeding in this way a lack of formality, and again 
perhaps it may appear singular that I should have addressed myself 
directly to His Eminence the Cardinal Prefect of the Propaganda, 
without regard to the precautions customary in such cases; but my 
answer is: 1st, that in such matters nothing but verbal statements can 
be expected on the part of the English Government, the formal appro- 
bation of a Catholic Bishop being entirely foreign, and even contrary 
to the spirit of the British constitution. . . ." (Bishop Hubert to Car- 
dinal Antonelli, June 19, 1788, C. A., M. 128, pp. 352-353-) 



263] CHURCH AND STATE UNDER BRITISH RULE 163 

The want of a strong national church in the American 
colonies was considered to have been responsible in a meas- 
ure for the rapid growth of democracy and the ultimate 
break with the motherland. The determination on the part 
of the British Ministry to avoid any such repetition of 
events in Quebec readily enlisted their support for the es- 
tablishment of the Church of England in the colony. After 
the American Revolution, therefore, the policy of the gov- 
ernment aimed more than ever to make Canada thoroughly 
English. Both the old and new subjects of his Majesty 
were to be anglicized. They were to be English first, not 
British ; Anglican, not Protestant. Canada was to be made 
not a New England, but an orthodox England. 

With slight modifications, the policy outlined in the in- 
structions to General Murray for bringing this about 
through the establishment of the Church of England and 
the erecting of a system of public schools directly under the 
control of the Bishop of London and the governor, was 
to be carried out. 1 

1 The instructions to General Murray stated explicitly that, in order 
that the Church of England might be established "both in principles 
and practice," and the new subjects be induced to embrace by degrees 
the Protestant religion and their children brought up in its principles, 
Protestant schools were to be erected. The cost of maintaining these, 
as well as providing for the support of the clergy, would be met by 
allotting for that purpose " proper quantities of land." Suggestions 
were to be made by Murray as to any further means by which he might 
consider the Protestant religion would " be promoted, established and 
encouraged" in the Province. (C A., Q. 26b, p. 26, art. xxxiii.) It 
was to be his special care to see that the worship of the Church of 
England was conducted with dignity and fitting solemnity. No Protes- 
tant minister was to be preferred to any living without a certificate 
from the Bishop of London " of his being conformable to the doctrines 
and discipline of the Church of England." (Ibid., p. 27, art. xxxv.) 
Murray had the further right of " full power and authority to Collate 
any person or persons to any Churches, Chappels, or other Ecclesiastical 
Benefices within our said Province, as often as any of them shall 
happen to be void." (Commission of Captain-General and Governor- 
in-Chief of the Province of Quebec, Const. Docs., vol. i, p. 126.) 



164 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [^4 

Many difficulties, however, stood in the way of a " proper 
establishment of the Church of England." The French 
Canadians were not easily to be induced to accept the Pro- 
testant religion. The English population was a mere hand- 
ful ; more than a decade after the conquest, Sir Guy Carle- 
ton testified in the House of Commons that the estimated 
Protestant population in Quebec was "about 360 men, with 
women and children." 1 Even as late as 1789, in a letter to 
the Archbishop of Canterbury, Bishop Inglis wrote, "At Que- 
bec there are but few English." 2 "The Canadians were to 
the English as five to one." 3 He further mentions having 
visited Three Rivers, " where there are about twenty-four 
Protestant families, and a Protestant settlement of fifteen 
families at River Du Loup." 4 In addition there was lack- 
ing able leadership and proper organization. The attempt 
to unite the English and Huguenots under a foreign clergy 
who had little knowledge of the liturgy of the Church of 
England, and less of the English language, coupled with 
the humiliation of holding service in a Roman Catholic 
church, all worked together to create an atmosphere un- 
favorable to the growth, and unfitting the dignity, of a 
national church. 

For these reasons among others, the early progress of the 
Church of England was slow. In the absence of regular 
clergy certain foreign Protestant clergy had been appointed 
under commission from the governor to act in the capacity 
of curates, 5 in Quebec, Montreal and Three Rivers. 6 The 

1 Cavendish, op. cit., p. 103. 

2 Canadian Archives Report, 1912, Correspondence and Journals of 
Bishop Inglis, p. 232. 

3 C. A., M. 914, p. 154. 

* Canadian Archives Report, 1912, op. cit., p. 232. 

5 C. A.. Q. 5, pt. ii, p. 759- 

6 Ibid., Q. 26, pt. i, p. 22. 



!6c] CHURCH AND STATE UNDER BRITISH RULE ^5 

Bishop of London, in a letter of September 29, 1768, seems 
to suggest some doubt as to the wisdom of this step when 
he says, " I suppose there can be no objection to the com- 
missions which the governor has given to the ministers, to 
officiate as curates in such churches or places as the gov- 
ernor may appoint ... it is all we can hope for until a 
more perfect establishment is made in the province." 

Although the need in a new country, no doubt, justified 
the governor in appointing certain ministers in the colony 
as curates, and justified the bishop in sanctioning their ap- 
pointment, the church made little progress under their min- 
istry. Some of the ministers at least, appear to have been 
of mean station and mediocre ability. In a letter on the 
state of the Church of England and the Clergy, the author 
writes, 

What opinions must the Canadians form of our religion when 
they daily see the minister of it degrading the very name by 
keeping a little dirty dram-shop and himself so scandalously 
indecent, as to measure out and sell rum to the soldiers of 
the garrison, and all this too in the capital of the province, the 
seat of the government, and the residence of the French Bishop 
and other dignified clergy of that church ? 2 

Other letters of the period, although less severe in their 
arraignment of the Protestant clergy, make it clear that 
many of them were quite unsuitable. 3 Haldimand, in re- 

1 Ibid., Q. 5, pt. ii, p. 759- 

' C. A., Q. 26, pt. i, p. 59. "Upon the whole, from an attentive but 
painful observation of our religious concerns in this province for ten 
years past, it may with safety be pronounced that unless our church is 
put upon a very different footing from what it is at present and proper 
clergy placed at Quebec, Montreal and Three Rivers, even the name 
of the Church of England — all that exists of it at present — will in a 
few years be extirpated from Canada. . . ." Ibid. 

3 "At Quebec the only clergyman of the Church of England is a very 



1 66 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [166 

f erring to three clergymen who had come to Canada with 
the United Empire Loyalists spoke very highly of one, but 
described the other two as " miserably indigent, too ignor- 
ant and insignificant in every respect, to be the least 
dangerous," x 

Bishop Inglis, during his visitation of the province be- 
came convinced that the policy of appointing foreign clergy 
to incumbencies had been disadvantageous to the interests 
of the church. In a letter to Dorchester, he writes that, 
" The introduction of so many foreign clergymen into 
Quebec was an ill-judged measure, and has had a very un- 
happy effect on our church. I had much conversation on 
the subject with the Archbishop of Canterbury ; he lamented 
the case and mentioned the expedient which he had pro- 
posed to your Lordship as most eligible to obviate the 
evil." 2 He is probably more generous in his criticism of 
the clergymen whom he found in charge of the various 
parishes ; yet he refers to the clergyman at Quebec, as a 
foreigner who " spoke very bad English — could scarcely 
be understood and although not deficient in abilities, nor 
chargeable with any immorality, yet his address and man- 
ners disqualified him for the station, and he seemed utterly 
unacquainted with the constitution, usages and regulations 
of our church." At the evening prayer he " read the ser- 
vice miserably and I could not understand half of his ser- 
mon." In summing up the situation at the time of his visit, 

old Swedish gentleman, who cannot speak one word of unbroken Eng- 
lish, and because of his unpopular private conduct the English inhabi- 
tants at Quebec — which are numerous and respectable — are deprived of 
Divine Service and the minister is an object of contempt and ridicule. 
At Montreal the case is the same. ... At Three Rivers the situation is 
still more unfortunate, and may be justly called shameful." Ibid., Q. 
26, pt. i, p. 22. 

1 Ibid., Q. 26, pt. i, p. 62. 

*C. A., M. 914, p. 94. 



l6y] CHURCH AND STATE UNDER BRITISH RULE rfy 

he writes, " there are only eight clergymen of the Church 
of England; of these three are foreigners and cannot speak 
English intelligently." 1 

The absence of proper oversight was responsible in part 
for this situation. Until the erection of the Episcopal See 
of Nova Scotia in 1787, 2 the Church of England, in Quebec, 
had been under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of London. 3 
Early in the summer of 1789, Bishop Inglis made his first 
visitation of the province, and his report to the Archbishop 
of Canterbury the same year makes it clear that the con- 
gregations had been practically without organization. 4 Both 
Bishop Inglis, personally while in Quebec, and the British 
government through Lord Dorchester sought to remedy this 
weakness. 5 This unhappy state of the church of England, 
as revealed in Bishop Inglis's report, therefore made it ap- 
parent that if the dream of a national church was ever to be 
realized the church must have more adequate supervision and 
support. In 1793. four years later, the Protestant Bishopric 
of Quebec was erected and Dr. Mountain, an English clergy- 

1 Ibid., M. 914, p. 154 et seq. 

* Ibid., Q. 28, p. 27. 

s Ibid., Q. 26b, p. 27. 

* C. A., M. 914, pp. 154, 206. 

4 " You are to take especial care that . . . the services and Prayers 
appointed by and according to the Book of Common Prayer be publicly 
and solemnly read and performed throughout the Year. 

" You are to be careful that the Churches which are or may be here- 
after erected in Our said Province of Lower Canada be well and 
orderly kept. 

" You shall recommend to the Legislative Council and General Assem- 
blies of the Province of Lower Canada to settle the Limits of Parishes 
in such a manner as shall be deemed most convenient. 

" You are to use your best Endeavours that every Minister be consti- 
tuted one of the Vestry in his respective Parish, and that no Vestry be 
held without him, except in case of his sickness, or that, after notice 
of a Vestry, he omit to come." (Instructions to Lord Dorchester, 
Const. Docs., vol. ii, p. 26.) 



1 68 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [168 

man, was appointed bishop of the diocese. Bishop Mountain, 
unlike his predecessor the Bishop of Nova Scotia, was at 
a disadvantage in having had no colonial experience. Un- 
accustomed to the conditions in a new country, he was both 
confident and determined that the Church of England in 
Quebec, should occupy the place of authority and dignity 
which the national church did in England. 

Unlike the situation in the American Colonies, there ap- 
pears to have been little opposition on the part of any 
considerable number of nonconformists to the appointment 
of a resident bishop. 1 There is reason to believe, however, 
that the Roman Catholics were somewhat apprehensive. 3 

In addition to the facts that some of the clergy were un- 
suited for their tasks and that the church lacked adequate 
supervision, the Church of England was further handicapped 
in its race for ecclesiastical control in not having its own 
church buildings. It is true that the garrison at Quebec 
had the use of the Re'collet church, 3 and that the members 
of the Church of England had the use of no less than three 
churches, two of which belonged to, and were used also by. 
the Roman Catholics. 4 Nevertheless it was equally true, 
as pointed out by the Reverend Mr. Toosey, in a letter to 
the Bishop of Lincoln, as well as by others, that there was 
not " a single church or chapel in Lower Canada belonging 
to the members of the Church of England ; at Quebec, they 

1 Kingsford, op. cit., vol. vii, p. 265 et scq.; Herbert L. Osgood, The 
American Colonies in the Seventeenth Century, vol. i, pp. 207-208, 294; 
vol. ii. p. 245, 331-333 ; vol. iii, pp. 390-39 1 '> Edward Channing, A His- 
tory of the United States, vol. ii, pp. 429, 431-434. 

s C. A., Q. S3, p. 336. 

8 C. A., M. 384, P- 60. 

4 ". . . Mr. Montmolin, notwithstanding we have in this town the use 
of two churches in common with the Roman Catholics and one entirely 
to ourselves." Carleton to Hillsborough, July 21, 1768, C. A., Q. 5, pt. 
ii, p. 727. 



!69] CHURCH AND STATE UNDER BRITISH RULE ,69 

assemble in a Popish chapel before or after the Popish 
service-" : This plan of using the Roman Catholic churches 
at such times as they were not being used by their own mem- 
bers was very unsatisfactory; not only was " the shifting of 
pews, seats and books on every occasion " necessary, but 
the place of worship had to be moved " with the change of 
the seasons to different places all depending upon the pre- 
carious tenure and will of their neighbors and fellow citi- 
zens of the Roman Catholic persuasion." 2 

The inconvenience thus occasioned, added to the thought 
of the national church being dependent upon the hospitality 
of the Roman Catholics, was considered by many to be most 
humiliating. 3 The Archbishop of Canterbury wrote to the 
Duke of Portland pointing out what he called " the mortify- 
ing and degrading state of the Church of England in the 
Province of Quebec for want of the convenience of a decent 
place of divine worship even in the capital." 4 As the Pro- 
testant population increased, they became emphatic in their 
demands for an adequate church establishment. 5 It was 
claimed that their church was not getting the support from 
the government that they had been led to expect ; in fact, the 
time had long passed when their expectations should have 
been fulfilled. 6 

At first, they desired to have the government hand over 
one of the numerous Roman Catholic churches. They main- 
tained that Quebec with a population of 7,000, of which 

1 C. A., Q. 66, p. 271 ; cf. Q. 43, pt. ii, p. 606. 

2 A Memorial and Petition of the Members of the Church of Eng- 
land to Guy Lord Dorchester, 1789, C. A., Q. 43, pt. ii, p. 607; cf. C. A., 
M. 914, p. 154. 

3 C. A., M. 914, p. '54- 

4 C. A., Q. 79, pt. ii, p. 453. 

5 Dartmouth Papers, C. A., M. 384, vol. ii, p. 99. 

• C. A., Q. 8;. p. z?>2 et seq.; cf. C. A., Q. 43. pt. ii, p. 606. 



I jo ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [ij 

about one-fifth was Protestant, had ten Roman Catholic 
churches and they could well spare one. 1 In Montreal, the 
same year, a similar request was made asking the govern- 
ment " to order the grant of the said church [Jesuit] and 
also a small piece of ground adjacent thereto for the pur- 
pose of building a vestry room." 2 

After the destruction by fire of the Recollet church, at 
Quebec, the Roman Catholic bishop offered the use of the 
Jesuit chapel to the Protestants. 3 This building was used 
for a time, but was soon considered inadequate to the needs 
of the Anglican communion. By the year 1796 this feeling 
had become so strong that it was urged to be " not an un- 
favorable moment for asking His Majesty's gracious pro- 
tection and support for the Church of England — that its 
members may obtain ... a decent, suitable and indepen- 
dent Place of Divine Worship." 4 This matter was referred 
to the home government and strongly supported by the 
Archbishop of Canterbury. 5 Finally, the sanction of the 
government was obtained for the erection of a place of 
worship and for the transfer of the old site of the Recollet 
church to the Church of England. 6 The building of a 
metropolitan church was soon undertaken, and carried to 
completion by funds provided, in large part, from the pub- 
lic treasury. 7 

1 C. A., Q. 43, pt. ii, p. 609; cf. Dartmouth Papers, C. A., M. 384, p. 60. 

1 C. A., Q. 43, pt. ii, p. 612 et seq. 

1 Ibid., Q. 77, pp. 216-217. 

4 Ibid., Q. 79, Pt. ii, p. 455- % Ibid„ p. 453- 

• C. A., Q. 82, p. 288 et seq.; cf. ibid., Q. 89, p. 102. 

7 C. A., Q. 84, p. 4; ibid., Q. 86, pt. i, p. 10. "From representation 
made to you by the commissioners for erecting the Metropolitan Church 
in Quebec, your compliance with their request for the advance of 
necessary sums to enable them to proceed without interruption in com- 
pleting the building was certainly proper. . . ." Instructions to Sir 
'Robert Shore Milnes, C. A., Q. 89, p. 96; cf. also ibid., Q. 88, pp. 151-152. 



iyi] CHURCH AND STATE UNDER BRITISH RULE Y j V 

One of the most important tasks confronting the Church 
of England was to secure an adequate revenue for the sup- 
port of the increased establishment. For although the 
Quebec Act had reserved to the Crown the " accustomed 
Dues and Rights " for the encouragement of the Protestant 
religion, 1 and the Constitutional Act had provided for the 
"Allotment and Appropriation " of government lands, 2 no 
definite scheme had been worked out for giving practical 
effect to these provisions. 3 

Apart from some help from the Society for the Propaga- 
tion of the Gospel, three sources of revenue seemed open, 
namely : voluntary offerings, tithes, and state grants of 
money and lands. 

The voluntary offerings of the people, from which the 
government had expected much, proved disappointing. 
These could not be estimated usually at more than forty or 
fifty pounds sterling. 4 Portland, in a dispatch of the 22nd 
of June 1796, wrote to Dorchester, " I cannot omit this 
opportunity of reminding your Lordship of the propriety 
of keeping alive the attention of the Colonists in your Gov- 
ernment to the idea of making a suitable provision for their 
own Clergy." 5 It was further urged that " the King's 
Bounty " was not intended to relieve the people of their 
financial obligations to the church. 6 In order to encour- 
age the people to assume some responsibility for the support 
of the clergy, the establishment of rectories was made to de- 
pend largely upon the disposition of the parishioners to 
contribute. The insistence of the officials, however, that 

'Imperial Act, 14 Geo. Ill, cap. lxxxiii, Const. Docs., vol. i, p. 403. 

* Imp. Act, 31 Geo. Ill, cap. xxxi, ibid., p. 704. 
5 C. A., Q. 69, pt. ii, p. 368 et seq. 

4 Ibid., Q. 83, p. 300. 

5 Ibid., Q. 7:-, Pt. ii, p. 265. 

• Ibid., Q. 86, pt. i, p. 10. 



lj 2 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [iy 2 

the subscriptions of parishioners should be guaranteed on 
the security of their land, proved a failure as it was strongly- 
opposed by both the settlers 1 and the Colonial Office. 2 

The question as to whether the Constitutional Act had 
conferred authority upon the Protestant churches to collect 
tithes from Protestants, remained for a time open to dis- 
pute. At first, the Colonial Office seemed to favor the in- 
terpretation of the Church of England, that the Act did 
confer this right, in Canada. In a letter to the Bishop of 
Quebec, of November 14, 1794, Portland makes this very 
clear, for he states, " there cannot be a shadow of a doubt 
relative to the construction of the late Canada Act which 
annexes to Rectories and Parsonages erected under the same 
the enjoyment of all the Rights, Profits and Emoluments, 
belonging to a Parsonage or Rectory in England which 
must necessarily include tythes, . . . " ? The following 
year, in a dispatch to Dorchester, he expressed the same 
opinion, " I should apprehend tythes are comprehended in 
the general terms therein used, and which give to Rectories 
and Parsonages erected under the same, the enjoyment of 
all Rights, Profits and Emoluments belonging to a Parson- 
age or Rectory in England." * 

It remained for the attorney general, Sewell, the same 
year, to point out that while the incumbent of a Protestant 
parish, by law, could enjoy the rights belonging to his rectory 
in the same manner as an incumbent could in England, 
nevertheless this did not entitle him to tithes, for this right 
had never been granted, by the Crown, to the Protestant 
clergy in Canada. 5 Similarly, the opinion had been ex- 

1 C. A., Q. 83, pp. 225, 390. 

2 Ibid., 82, p. 295. 

3 Ibid., 69, pt. ii, p. 400. 

4 Ibid., 71, pt. i, p. 92. 

6 Const. Docs., vol. ii, pp. 191-193. 



I7 3J CHURCH AND STATE UNDER BRITISH RULE I7 ^ 

pressed with regard to the authority of a rector, church war- 
dens, and vestry, to call a parish meeting for the purpose of 
assessing the people, — which had been attempted in the bor- 
ough of William Henry, — that there was no statute or act 
from which such a right could be derived. 1 These opinions, 
if upheld. Bishop Mountain saw would greatly weaken the 
status of the Protestant establishment, and he at once urged 
upon Lord Dorchester " the necessity of legislative inter- 
ference for the better regulation of ecclesiastical affairs." 2 

Dorchester's dispatch of October 10. 1795, to Portland, 
enclosing a number of documents, revealed a wide differ- 
ence of opinion, in the province, with respect to tithes. One 
of these, from the minister, wardens, vestry and congrega- 
tion of Christ Church. Montreal, was in the form of a peti- 
tion, praying that, "Letters Patent might be used erecting the 
said church into a parsonage, endowing the rector, wardens 
and vestry with corporate powers conformably to the 
statute of Geo. Ill, chap. 31, but without subjecting the par- 
ishioners by such establishment to the payment either of 
tythes or parish rates." 3 This petition showed there was 
opposition to tithes even within the Anglican communion. 

The Colonial Office now saw, both from the stand- 
point of law and of public policy, that some other means 
had to be devised for the maintenance of religious ordi- 
nances until such time as the church lands should produce 
sufficient revenue. 4 In Portland's dispatch of July, 1799, 
the changed attitude is clearly shown. The incumbent of 
a parish, he writes, has no right to tithes, and " no such 
right can exist except by special grant from His Majesty." 

1 Const. Docs., vol. ii, pp. 189, 190. 
* C. A., Q. 74, pt. ii, p. 207. 

3 Ibid., pt. i, p. 199. 

4 C. A., Q. 75, pt. ii. p. 265. 
6 Ibid., Q. 82, p. 291. 



174 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [174 

According to the Quebec Act of 1774, he further points out 
that while the Roman Catholic clergy were entitled to re- 
ceive their ancient rights and dues, this did not exempt the 
Protestants from obligation to pay tithes, since the Act 
provided that, 

it should be lawful for His Majesty to make provision out of 
the rest of the said accustomed dues and rights for the main- 
tenance and support of a Protestant Clergy. 

Neither did it give any right to a Protestant Clergyman to 
exact tythes even from Protestants, the right of collecting them 
was wholly vested in the King, who might relax or enforce that 
right, as might be judged expedient. 1 

The same held true of the Constitutional Act, which de- 
clared that " every person presented to a Parsonage or 
Rectory shall hold the same and all rights, profits and 
emoluments thereunto belonging or granted as fully and 
amply and in the same manner, etc., as the incumbent of a 
rectory or parsonage in England," but which, however, did 
not determine what rights belonged to clergymen in Canada, 
much less include the taking of tithes. This was the 
prerogative of the king and had never been granted to the 
Protestant clergy. 2 

The foundation of the Protestant establishment in 
Canada, however, was not intended to rest on voluntary 
offerings or tithes, but on the lands which should be set 
apart, in every new settlement, as clergy reserves. These 
were to consist of one-seventh of all the land thrown open 
for settlement, and were to be selected in such a way as to 
be most likely to share in the unearned increment, or as the 

1 Ibid., p. 292 ; cf. also Imp. Act, 14 Geo. Ill, cap. lxxxiii, Const. 
Docs., vol. i, p. 403. 

' Ibid., Q. 82, p. 293 ; cf. Imp. Act, 31 Geo. Ill, cap. xxxi, Const. 
Docs., vol. i, pp. 703-704. 



^5] CHURCH AND STATE UNDER BRITISH RULE ,75 

act stated, " between the other farms of which the said 
township shall consist." 1 This large proportion of the land 
in each settlement, it was considered would soon provide an 
adequate revenue for the maintenance of the new establish- 
ment and render unnecessary the taking of tithes or the 
placing of any undue burden upon the parishioners. 2 

In the meantime the Colonial Office supplemented the 
stipends of the clergy from the provincial revenues. Ex- 
cept in very special cases the allowance did not exceed 
£100 sterling for each clergyman. 3 The grant was looked 
upon only as a temporary expedient by the Crown and it 
was repeatedly suggested to the legislature to "devise some 
mode of making a provision for its officiating clergy.'"' 4 

The foregoing discussion of the establishment of the 
Church of England reveals how inadequate were its re- 
sources to cope with the tremendous task of assimilation 
assigned to it by the government. Even for ministering 
to the religious needs of its own small constituency its re- 
sources in organization, leadership and material support 
compared very unfavorably with those of its well organized 
and strongly entrenched rival, the Roman Catholic church. 
This being the case it was not to be expected that the 
Church of England could accomplish much either in Angli- 

1 Const. Docs., vol. ii, p. 61. 

2 C. A., Q. yi, pt. i, p. 9.3; cf. also ibid., Q. 75, pt. ii, p. 265. 

5 ". . . you will consider yourself authorized to make a temporary 
addition to such allowance from the Provincial Revenues of an annual 
sum not exceeding 100 pounds, except in very particular cases where 
the nature and consequence of the situation and of its duties may call 
for it, to be continued to such incumbent until some Act of the Legis- 
lature, or the improvement of the Church Revenues, shall afford the 
means of securing to him an adequate provision, without having re- 
course to the means above mentioned." C. A., Q. 82, p. 295; cf. also 
ibid., Q. 83, p. 390. 

* C. A., Q. 82, p. 294. 



lyS ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [176 

cizing the French Canadian population or in weakening the 
control of the Roman Catholic church. 

In fact the opposite was true. The attempt to establish 
the Church of England as the national church and to extend 
state support to the sister Church of Scotland necessarily 
advanced the interests of the Roman Catholic church. 1 

The Protestant Bishopric of Quebec entitled the bishop 
to membership in the Legislative Council with the title of 
Lord Bishop of Quebec. This honor was claimed, at once, 
by Bishop Mountain on his arrival in the province, 2 for 
both the bishop and many members of the Anglican com- 
munion considered it of the first importance that the head 
of the church should have a seat in parliament as in 
England. There was some question whether as a member 
of the Privy or Legislative Councils he would be able to 
render the larger service to the church. Finally, however, 
he was appointed to the Legislative Council, 3 although with- 
out salary, 4 as it was considered that as a legislator he 
would guard the church's interests more carefully and per- 
fect its establishment. 5 The privileges sought by the Prot- 
estant churches could hardly be withheld from the Roman 

1 C. A., Q. 28, p. 165; cf. ibid., Q. 89, p. 21. 

* " By His Majesty's ship Severn which sailed on the 6th, I had the 
honor to inform you that we arrived at Quebec on the 1st of this 
month; having taken an early opportunity of presenting my patent to 
Lord Dorchester, I learnt upon that occasion with the utmost surprize 
that His Majesty's mandamus constituting the Bishop of this Diocese a 
member of the Legislative Council with the title of Lord Bishop of 
Quebec had not come to his Lordship's hands. . . ." C. A., Q. 69, pt. 
ii, p. 381. 

3 " The Bishop has sent me two mandamus writs for his being styled 
Lord Bishop of Upper and Lower Canada and called to the Legislative 
Council of both provinces: patents will be prepared accordingly." C.A., 
Q. 71, pt. i, p. 6; cf. also ibid., Q. 83, p. 356. 

* C. A., Q. 77, p. 358; cf. also ibid., Q. 79, pt. ii, p. 430. 
5 C. A., Q. 69, pt. ii, pp. 368-369. 



lyy] CHURCH AND STATE UNDER BRITISH RULE Y jj 

Catholic church which represented such a large proportion 
of the population. 1 This was soon recognized by Dor- 
chester. 2 In a letter to Portland, of December 1795, giving 
a list of the names of those recommended for appointment 
to the Legislative Council, he writes, 

The name of the Reverend Jean Francois Hubert, our Roman 
Catholic Bishop is omitted in the list of those recommended, 
as this measure may seem to deserve a more particular con- 
sideration, but for my part, seeing it has been thought advisable 
to give our Protestant Bishop a political character in this 
province where his proportion in the cure of souls is that of 
seventy in two thousand, I cannot but recommend that the 
same honor be conferred on Mr. Hubert, who has always 
shown himself a very good subject much retired from the 
world, and somewhat devout. 3 

It may readily be seen from this attitude of Dorchester that 
he considered the rights and privileges granted to the Church 
of England could hardly be withheld from the Roman 
Catholic church. This was soon recognized by the Angli- 
can Bishop for in writing to Portland, with regard to the 
anticipation of the Protestants and the apprehension of the 
Roman Catholics, at the appointment of a Protestant bishop, 
he further remarks : " But both parties have long been un- 
deceived. The Catholics, elevated to a higher degree of 
security and confidence than before, look down with con- 
tempt upon the fruitless efforts that have been made to 
raise the Church of England to a competent degree of in- 
dependence and* respect. They well knew that the political 

1 C. A., Q. 75, pt. i, p. 48 et seq. 

* Dorchester to Dundas, C. A., Q. 71, pt. i, p. 5 ; cf. C. A., Q. 68, pp. 
132-133. 

* Dorchester to Portland, C. A., Q. 75, pt. i, p. 48. 



^8 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [178 

influence of their prelate, however silent and unobtrusive 
in its operation, infinitely outweighs his." 1 

The Constitutional Act in dividing the Province of Quebec 
into the two provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, 2 left 
the population of Lower Canada overwhelmingly French 
and Roman Catholic. 3 It is true that there had been con- 
siderable immigration of English-speaking Protestants into 
what was now Lower Canada ; but these were relatively few 
compared with their numerous French Canadian neighbors. 
The hierarchy soon seems to have realized that the English 
must always remain numerically inferior. Bishop Hubert, 
in a letter to Cardinal Antonelli at Rome, makes it clear 
that he felt no alarm at the volume of English immigration 
then coming to Quebec for he writes, 

This colony which is naturally fertile, is being considerably ex- 
tended from day to day not only by the settlements made by 
the English, but also by those made by the Canadians. The 
dominant religion is still the Roman Catholic, and, although 
during the twenty-nine years which have passed since England 
conquered us a large number of English Protestants have 
come to Canada, they are, however, and will probably always 
remain much less numerous than the Roman Catholics; so 
much so that in, (at least) a third of the country parishes, it 
would be difficult to find three Protestant families. ... I have 
observed on my pastoral visitations the firm faith and at- 
tachment of our people to our Holy Religion. . . . 4 

This firm faith and attachment among such a large propor- 
tion of the population made it easy for the church to remain 
dominant in ecclesiastical affairs. 

1 C. A., Q. 83, pp. 334, 336, 337- 
a Const. Docs., vol. i, p. 695. 
3 C. A., Q. 75, pt. i, p. 48. 
*C. A., M. 128, p. 347. 



Ijg] CHURCH AND STATE UNDER BRITISH RULE I79 

The Constitutional Act of 1791 marked the culmination 
of the development of the system of ecclesiastical control. 
Through the extension of self-government which gave the 
franchise to the French Canadians there was opened to the 
church the further avenue to power through its influence 
at the polls. 1 

With the granting of the Constitutional Act the legal status 
of the Roman Catholic church in Quebec was assured, and 
ecclesiastical control was achieved. Few changes of fun- 
damental importance for the Roman Catholic church have 
been made since its passage. The subsequent development 
of ecclesiastical control in Quebec is but the outgrowth of 
the privileges and prerogative accorded to it by the British 
government before the end of the eighteenth century. 

1 Const. Docs., vol. i, p. 697 et seq. 



CHAPTER VI 
Summary and Conclusion 

The purpose of this study as set forth in the Introduction 
was to indicate from a sociological point of view the close 
relation of the rise of ecclesiastical control and the social 
solidarity upon which it was based, to the great demographic 
and social facts of the Province of Quebec. The study has 
sought to review the facts which show how inevitably the 
population became homogeneous, and how for this reason 
there developed a social solidarity which was highly favor- 
able to the development of a centralized and paternalistic 
ecclesiastical control. 

The demographic and social conditions were dealt with 
in Part I chapters II and III. In chapter II, these under- 
lying demographic factors which affected the homogeneity 
of the population of Quebec were dealt with under the head- 
ings of situation, aggregation, demotic composition and 
demotic unity. The situation, in its natural features, in 
its artificial features and in the sources of subsistence was 
shown to have been remarkably conducive to homogeneity 
of population. This was seen to have been brought about 
by the system of waterways which provided an easy means 
of access to the newer districts and by the seigniorial system 
of land tenure which tended to produce many scattered 
communities of essentially the same type. Within the local 
settlements, further, the relatively dense population along 
the river banks afforded unusual opportunities for inter- 
180 [180 



iSi] SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION x 8i 

communication among the inhabitants and gradually devel- 
oped a high degree of mental unity. 

Thus, because the territory was settled by a single popu- 
lation type, namely that of the Roman Catholic French, each 
small community soon became composed of persons rela- 
tively alike in descent, language and religion. Inasmuch 
as the river and seigniorial systems led to the founding of 
many such local groups, at about the same time and by the 
same population type there resulted a remarkable similarity 
among the local groups. The relative isolation of these 
different settlements in the early days of the colony which 
had permitted relatively little inter-communication among 
the various communities, nevertheless laid the foundation 
for homogeneity and subsequent social solidarity for the 
entire province. When later a well developed system of 
communication by roads was added to the increasing use of 
the rivers, the inter-relationships established readily pro- 
duced a mental and moral solidarity throughout the whole 
territory- 

The privations and hardships incident to pioneer life in a 
new country also operated to create a single homogeneous 
type of population. Natural resources were abundant but 
not such as to create great differences in wealth between 
the successful and unsuccessful. The exploitation of these 
resources required much severe toil. In consequence, only 
the vigorous could remain permanently on the land. The 
process of selection of necessity gradually produced a re- 
markably homogeneous type of population, thrifty and self- 
satisfied, traditionalistic and conservative in the extreme. 

The population, furthermore, was essentially homogene- 
ous in its descent. It is true the Indians were always a 
factor to be considered in shaping the policies of church 
and state ; nevertheless as they never became an integral 
part of the local community, the element of heterogeneity 



1&2 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [182 

which their presence introduced was never of great im- 
portance in relation to ecclesiastical control. The homo- 
geneity and consequent social solidarity of the white popu- 
lation was merely intensified by the relations which grew 
out of the presence of the Indians. 

From an ethnic and religious point of view the early 
white population of Quebec was highly homogeneous, for 
it was drawn almost altogether from France. Immigra- 
tion, which had been stimulated by active organization in 
France before 1680, began to show a marked decline so 
that the French Canadian population rapidly became a 
genetic aggregation, that is, a population produced by na- 
tural increase rather than by migration. 

The demotic composition of Quebec was relatively uni- 
form, for immigration had been drawn from all parts of 
France. The different racial elements of the French popu- 
lation, found a common area of assimilation so that the 
ethnographical diversities gradually disappeared through 
amalgamation in Quebec. 

This amalgamation was further expedited by the wide- 
spread distribution of the immigrants on their arrival in 
the colony, by assisted immigration of girls and women of 
marriageable age, by the absence of any impediment to 
marriage on account of religious differences, by the de- 
cline of the noblesse and the leveling of classes. These 
facts, coupled with the encouragement given by the gov- 
ernment to early marriages and large families, made the 
French Canadian population at the end of our period in 
1 79 1, a more homogeneous aggregation than even the 
population of France. 

In chapter III, entitled Social and Moral Solidarity, 
the facts of occupation, language, religion and other social 
characteristics of the population were so treated as to in- 
dicate their relation to the same fundamental social condi- 
tion, namely, mental and moral solidarity. 



lS^] SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION ^3 

Occupation was not greatly diversified. Agriculture from 
a very small beginning steadily gained in importance until 
it was the leading industry. With the decline of the fur 
trade after the conquest and the passing of general trading 
more and more into the hands of the British, the proportion 
of French Canadians engaged in agriculture steadily in- 
creased until at the end of our period (1791) it is most 
probable that eighty per cent of the French Canadians were 
living in the open country or in small rural villages and 
that they possessed all the traditionalism and conservatism 
peculiar to a homogeneous agricultural population. 

Uniformity of language further intensified the social 
solidarity resulting from uniformity of occupation. At the 
conquest French was practically the only language spoken. 
The fusion of the early settlers among whom the French- 
speaking predominated, had been so complete, that, in a 
comparatively short time the French language had received 
universal acceptance. The attempt of the British after the 
conquest to introduce English met with strong opposition 
from the Roman Catholic hierarchy and ended in failure- 

In this way the French language, in the hands of the 
church became an effective weapon of isolation, warding 
off modernism in every form. For, on the one hand, Eng- 
lish ideas were successfully shut out, and on the other, all 
French literature was so carefully censored that only those 
French ideas which were in complete harmony with the 
church were allowed to get in. The barrier of language 
thus became another stepping stone in the rise of ecclesias- 
tical control. Uniformity of language, however, was shown 
to have been only one of the factors which, by intensifying 
social solidarity, made ecclesiastical control easy. 

The absence of interests and organizations other than 
the church rendered the foregoing influences peculiarly 
potent in creating similarity of thought and custom. The 



1 84 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [184 

state discouraged its citizens from having any voice in 
directing public affairs and the church jealously guarded 
its social and religious leadership in the parishes. The 
coureurs de bois, unwilling to withstand repressive policies, 
sought the freedom of the interior, and so rendered the 
carrying-out of unifying policies among the settled popu- 
lation less difficult. The pressure of pioneer life in the 
parishes left little opportunity for developing new interests 
among the habitants. The absence of other interests un- 
doubtedly accounted in large part for the important place 
which the church occupied in the life of the French 
Canadians. 

The vast majority of the people, as was pointed out, were 
subjected to relatively simple stimuli both in the process of 
exploiting their environment and in the expression of their 
social, political and religious life through the activities of 
the parish church. In this way the continued like-response 
to the common stimuli was most important in developing 
social solidarity. 

The characteristics of the French Canadians also made 
them readily subject to ecclesiastical control during this 
period. The prevailing type of character although force- 
ful and convivial was devoutly religious. Ideo-emotional 
in type of mind, they were swayed largely by feeling. 
Reason had little opportunity to assert itself. They clung 
to their ancient laws and customs, not because of the real- 
ized value of these laws and customs, but because of their 
traditionalistic and conservative type of mind. Such traits 
likewise rendered them readily amenable to the unquestioned 
authority of the church. 

It was in the sphere of religion, however, that even a 
greater degree of homogeneity was exhibited. The strict 
exclusion of Protestants had been of primary impor- 
tance for the unity of faith and practise. Everywhere 



!g 5 ] SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION ^5 

throughout New France there was uniformity of worship. 
There was one church and one religious leadership, under 
the supervision of a watchful bishop. The attendance at 
church represented the whole community. The presence 
of a strong large body of clergy in the colony, backed by a 
highly organized church with liberal financial support, and 
in control of education, gave to the church in Quebec, stabil- 
ity and prestige in the older parishes, and enabled it to do 
effective home mission work in the newer settlements. It 
is not surprising therefore that the church, thus strongly 
organized and adequately supported, unchallenged by any 
rival, religious or otherwise, except the state, should have 
been able to strengthen its influence and to centralize its 
control. The possession of this immense centralized con- 
trol, as has been shown, not only brought the church into 
conflict with the state but of necessity tended to a zealous 
guardianship of the control itself on the part of the church 
authorities. 

Thus in considering the sociological basis for explaining 
the evolution of ecclesiastical control, the facts of situation, 
natural resources, population, occupation, language, social 
organization, psychological characteristics of the inhabi- 
tants, religious and educational institutions all were shown 
to have been conducive to the production of the remark- 
ably homogeneous population and a well developed mental 
and moral solidarity. 

The evolution of ecclesiastical control itself was dealt 
with in part II, chapters IV and V, from an historical 
standpoint. 

Chapter IV traced the evolution of ecclesiastical control 
in the French period, and dealt with the forces both favor- 
able and unfavorable to the rise and development of this 
control. Among the more favorable forces were the inter- 
est of the explorers and colonizers in the conversion of 



^6 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [1S6 

the natives, the devotion of the early missionaries, the 
political influence of the Jesuits, the services rendered by 
the missionaries to the state in its relation to the Indians, 
and the establishment of the Archbishopric of Quebec in- 
dependent of the Gallican Church and directly subject to 
the See of Rome. The unfavorable forces were shown to 
be the increased emphasis placed by Colbert and succeed- 
ing administrations on the economic interests of the colony 
and the assertion of the king's supremacy in all temporal 
matters. This changed attitude was shown in the opposi- 
tion of the Sovereign Council to the domination of the 
Roman Catholic hierarchy, as well as in the active inter- 
ference by the state respecting tithes, religious houses, the 
public ministry of the church and other clerical encroach- 
ments. In this way the state, from being the servant of 
the church, gradually became supreme. The theocratic 
influences which had predominated from the beginning of 
ecclesiastical control under the Jesuits gave way before the 
progressive colonial policy of Louis XIV and his ministers. 
From that time to the end of French rule, except for the 
brief term of Denonville after the recall of Frontenac, the 
temporal influence of the church in Quebec steadily 
declined. 

Thus it is probable that the Roman Catholic church in 
Quebec would never have gained its position of power and 
authority had it not been for the British conquest- The 
defeat of the French on the Plains of Abraham was a 
victory for Roman Catholicism in Quebec. The statement 
that the church might profit by a " change of masters " soon 
proved to be true, notwithstanding the desire of the British 
government to have it otherwise. 

Chapter V reviewed the details of the relation of Church 
and State under British rule up to 1791. During this period 
the existing social solidarity was shown to be of fundamental 



t 87] SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION i%j 

importance for the development of ecclesiastical control, be- 
cause many of the British government's attempts to adjust 
its policies to that solidarity, necessarily reacted to increase 
the power of the church. 

The friction created by the attempt to assimilate the 
French Canadian population through the introduction of 
English law, greatly strengthened the Roman Catholic clergy 
in that it made them the leaders of the people against the 
policies of their conquerors. In this way the clergy be- 
came the logical and actual, though not the legal, successors 
of the French civil authorities who had returned to France. 
Among the other important factors noted as strengthening 
the control of the church were: the concessions which the 
British government considered it wise to make in order to 
retain the loyalty of this homogeneous population ; and the 
loyalty of the Roman Catholic hierarchy to the British gov- 
ernment during the Revolutionary War. The inevitable 
outcome of the attempt to establish the Church of England 
was shown to have been an increase in the power of the Ro- 
man Catholic church. The separation of the Province of 
Quebec into Upper and Lower Canada in 1791 was a 
further adjustment to the social solidarity of the French 
Canadians. By thus separating the two races and at the 
same time extending the franchise to them, the political con- 
trol of Lower Canada was secured to the French Canadians. 
It was inevitable therefore, in view of the powerful position 
of leadership occupied by the clergy, that the political and 
social control of the Roman Catholic church should have 
the supreme position it now holds. 

The rise of ecclesiastical control in Quebec is seen, there- 
fore, to have been the outcome of many peculiar social con- 
ditions as well as a result of conditions generally classed as 
specifically political. The demographic factor- of Quebec 
tended to develop a highly homogeneous population. This 



^8 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROL IN QUEBEC [i$£ 

homogeneity brought about a remarkable social and moral 
solidarity which reacted very favorably to the rise of eccles- 
iastical control. The despotic power of the state under 
French rule, however, was able partly to offset the influence 
of this social and moral solidarity and to bring about a de- 
cline in the temporal authority of the church. After the 
conquest, however, the attempt of the British government to 
assimilate the French Canadians intensified this solidarity 
by uniting the clergy and people in a common struggle to 
retain their laws and to defend their religion. Finally, the 
concessions which this alliance of the clergy and people ob- 
tained from the British government through the Constitu- 
tional Act and previous legislation, secured to the Roman 
Catholic church in Quebec those constitutional rights which 
have made it possible for the church to mould the homo- 
geneous French Canadian population to its purpose. It was 
through the operation of these forces that the Roman 
Catholic church in Quebec rose to its present position of 
unparalleled ecclesiastical control. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



I. Manuscript Sources 



Canadian Archives. 

Original Collections : 

Series G. Original despatches to governors 
and lieutenant-governors from the Colo- 
nial Office. 
Transcripts from England : 

Series Q. Original papers at the Public 
Record Office, composed of the corres- 
pondence of the governors, lieutenant- 
governors, and administrators of Quebec 
('Lower Canada) and Upper Canada from 
the first years of British rule to 1841. 

Series B. Haldimand Papers in the British 
Museum, including the correspondence of 
Frederick Haldimand, and a large part 
of Sir Guy Carleton's public papers. 
Transcripts from France: 

Series B. Registers, letters and books, in 
which were dispatches, memoranda and 
other papers sent out by the French king 
and the minister to the officials, ecclesias- 
tics and other persons in the colony. 

Series C 11 . Correspondance Generate du 
Canada, official and miscellaneous corres- 
pondence and other papers received from 
Canada. It is thus complementary to 
Series B. 

Series F 2 . Papers and correspondence deal- 
ing with missions and religious worship, 
1658- 1 782. 
189] 



Abbreviations 
used for works 
cited more than 
once. 



C. A., G. 



C. A., Q. 



C.A., B. Haldi- 
mand Papers. 



C. A., B. 

C. A., C". 

C. A., F 2 . 
189 



190 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



[190 



Series F 3 . Moreau de St. Mery. A collec- C. A., F 3 . 
tion of papers especially valuable in show- 
ing the paternalism of the French govern- 
ment. 
iSeries G. Registers, land records, and cen- 
sus statistics, including the general cen- 
suses of Canada from 1685-1739. 
English Archives. 
British Museum : 

The King's Manuscripts. 
French Archives. 

Bibliotheque Nationale: 
Fonds Fran gats. 
Nouvelles Acquisitions Francoises. Nouv. Acq. Fr. 

II. Contemporary Published Sources 

Annual Register. London, 1758-1811, 54 vols. 

Baxter, J. P. A Memoir of Jacques Cartier. New 
York, 1906. 

Brymner, Douglas. Reports on Canadian Archives. 
Ottawa, 1872- 1903. 

Cavendish, Sir Henry. Debates of the House of Cavendish. 
Commons in the year 1774, on the Bill for mak- 
ing more effectual provision for the government 
of the Province of Quebec. London, 1839. 

Census of Canada 1870-1871. Vol. iv, Census Report Census. 
of New France and Lower Canada. 

Champeaux, Gilbert de. Le droit civil ecclesiastique Champeaux. 
francais, ancien et moderne dans ses rapports 
avec le droit canon et la legislation actuelle. 
Paris, 1848, 2 vols. 

Champlain. Les voyages de la N ouvelle-F ranee Occ'x- 
dentale, 1603-1629. Paris, 1632. 

. CEuvres de Champlain. Par C. H. Laver- 

diere. Quebec, 1870, 6 vols. 

. Voyages of Samuel de Champlain. Publi- 
cations of the Prince Society. Boston, 1880, 3 
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ERIRATA 

PAGE 

25. For "botanist" read "Swedish naturalist". 

76, 144 and 156. For " Maseres " read " Maseres". 

78, 81, 83, 84 and 85. For " Memoires sur le Canada" read " Nou- 

velles Acquisitions Franchises 9273 ". 
136. For " ministers " read " minister ", for " they " " he ", and for 

" them " " him ". 
136 and 137. For " M. de Ramsey " read " M. de Ramsay ". 
138. For " to be afforded " read " were to be afforded ". 

145. For " ladys " read " ladies ", and for " effect " " affect ". 

146. For " conqucrer " read " conqueror ", and on pp. 146, 149 and 

154, for " Cramahe ", " Cramhe ", " Cramache " respectively 
read " Cramahe ". 

147. For " Superior Council " read " Sovereign Council ". 

149. For " lesson " read " lessen ". 

150. For " Haldemand " read " Haldimand " and for " De la Vali- 

niere " read " De la Valiniere ". 
T 53- For "this opinion" read "This is an opinion". 
157. "Hold, receive . . . said Religion", "the religious Orders . . . 

excepted ", " to hold . . . Civil Rights " should be enclosed in 

quotation marks. 
160. For " beneficient " read " beneficent ". 

196 I 



VITA 



Walter Alexander Riddell was born at Stratford, in 
the Province of Ontario, Canada, on the fifth of August 
1881. His elementary and secondary education was re- 
ceived in the schools of Denver, Colorado, and Manitoba, 
Canada. He was matriculated in the University of Mani- 
toba from Manitoba College in 1903, received the degree of 
B. A. from the former institution in 1907, the degree of 
A. M. (in Sociology) from Columbia University in 1908, 
and the degree of B. D. from Union Theological Seminary 
in 1912. During the summer of 19 12 he worked under 
the direction of Dr. Warren H. Wilson, Superintendent of 
the Department of Church and Country Life of the Board 
of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church of the United 
States, in the Ohio Rural Life Survey. During the fall of 
191 2 and during the greater part of 19 13 he made re- 
searches for his dissertation, in the archives of London, 
Paris and Ottawa. From June to September, 191 3, he 
studied in Ottawa as " Research Fellow from the University 
of Manitoba in Canadian Archives." In the fall of that 
year he was appointed director of social surveys for the 
Methodist and Presbyterian churches in Canada, a position 
which he still holds. In Columbia University he studied 
under Professors Giddings, Tenney, Chaddock, Seager, 
McGiffert and Rockwell, and attended the seminars of Pro- 
fessor Giddings and of Professor McGiffert. 

197 



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